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THE CHRISTMAS 
PORRINGER 


STORIES BY 

EVALEEN STEIN 


□ 

Gabriel and the Hour Book - - $L00 
The Christmas Porringer - - - f .25 
A Little Shepherd of Provence - L25 
The Little Count of Normandy - \ .25 

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THE PAGE COMPANY 
53 Beacon Street, Boston, Mass. 





































































THE STARTLED WONDER GREW IN HER BLUE EYES AS 
SHE STARED DOWN AT THE THINGS AT HER FEET.” 

(See page 164.) 



®ljr (Hlfnatmaa 
flnrnngrr 

BY 

Enakrtt S>tetn 

Author of “ A Little Shepherd of Provence,” “ Gabriel and 
the Hour Book,” *' The Little Count of 
Normandy,” etc. 

Mufltrattffc by Atolatte lEurrljart 



$ age fflumpattg 
!5n0t0tt ,*? Mbttttxxn 



Copyright , 1914, by 
The Page Company 


All rights reserved 


First Impression, August, 1914 


THE COLONIAL PRESS 
C. H. SIMONDS CO., BOSTON, U. S. A. 


" " * 

SEP 3 1914 

©Cl, A 3795 05 


TO 

iftp Little JMenfc 

Alice Louise Moran 





- . 


CHAPTER 

Contents 

PAGE 

I. 

Karen Asks about Christmas 

I 

II. 

Buying the Porringer 

23 

III. 

Robber Hans 

53 

IV. 

Robber Hans and the Porringer . 

73 

V. 

Hans Turns Sailor .... 

97 

VI. 

At the Rag - market .... 

113 

VII. 

Grandmother and Karen . 

143 

VIII. 

Christmas Eve Again 

158 

IX. 

Karen Perplexed .... 

170 

X. 

The Porringer Finds a Resting- 



place 

180 







































• . 










i 






















































Hfjst of 3!llu£tratfonsi 

PAGE 

“ The startled wonder grew in her blue 

EYES AS SHE STARED DOWN AT THE THINGS 

at her feet ” (See page 164) . Frontispiece 

“ Resting her chin on one hand, looked 

DREAMILY INTO THE FIRE ” .... l6 V 

“ Karen called out merrily, ‘ Dear Madam 
Swan, I have bought the most wonder- 
ful things ! ’ ” ,39 

“ The man’s keen eyes caught the gleam of 

SOMETHING THERE ” 54 

“ He saw her sitting there on the grass be- 
side Frau Radenour ” 133 %/ 

“ Many white swans were always to be 

„ 

FOUND FLOATING ABOUT . . . . I50 ^ 

























































































. 








The Christmas Porringer 



CHAPTER I 



KAREN ASKS ABOUT CHRISTM>S 

^VER the old Flemish 
city of Bruges the win- 
try twilight was falling. 
The air was starry with 
snowflakes that drifted softly 
down, fluttering from off the 
steep brown roofs, piling up in 
corners of ancient doorways, and 
covering the cobblestones of the 
narrow streets with a fleecy car- 
pet of white. 

At a corner of one of the old- 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


est of these and facing on an- 
other no wider than a lane, but 
which bore the name of The 
Little Street Of The Holy 
Ghost, a number of years ago 
there stood a quaint little house 
built of light yellow bricks. It 
had a steep gabled roof, the 
bricks that formed it being ar- 
ranged in a row of points that 
met at the peak beneath a gilded 
weather-vane shaped like an ar- 
row. The little house had no 
dooryard, and a wooden step led 
directly from its entrance to the 
flagstones that made a narrow, 
uneven walk along that side of 
the street. 

Icicles hung from the edge of 
the brown roof and twinkled in a 
crystal fringe around the canopy 


KAREN ASKS ABOUT CHRISTMAS 


of the little shrine up in the 
corner of the dwelling. For, 
like so many others of the old 
city, the little house had its own 
shrine. It was a small niche 
painted a light blue, and in it, 
under a tiny projecting canopy 
of carved wood, stood a small 
figure of the Virgin Mother 
holding the Christ-child in her 
arms. Now and then a starry 
snowflake drifted in beneath the 
canopy and clung to the folds 
of the Virgin’s blue robe or 
softly touched the little hands of 
the Christ-child nestling against 
her breast. 

And, by and by, as the wind 
rose and blew around the corner 
of the house, it began to pile up 
the snow on the sills of the case- 


3 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


ment windows whose small panes 
of glass lighted the room within, 
where sat an old woman and a 
little girl. The woman was clad 
in a plain black gown, such as is 
still worn by the humbler of the 
Flemish dames, and on her sil- 
very hair was a stiffly starched 
cap of white. 

The little girl was dressed 
much the same, save that her 
light brown hair was not hidden 
but braided in two plaits that 
were crossed and pinned up very 
flat and tight at the back of her 
head. 

The woman was bending over 
a rounded pillow, covered with 
black cloth, which she held in 
her lap; it was stuck full of stout 
pins, and around these was caught 


KAREN ASKS ABOUT CHRISTMAS 


a web of fine threads each ending 
in a tiny bone bobbin, and be- 
neath her skillful fingers, as they 
deftly plied these bobbins in and 
out, a delicate piece of lace was 
growing; for it was thus that she 
earned bread for herself and the 
little girl. 

Indeed, the lace of Bruges, 
made by the patient toil of num- 
berless of her poorer people, has 
for many centuries been famous 
for its fineness and beauty. And 
those who so gain their livelihood 
must often begin to work while 
they are still children, even as 
young as the little girl who sat 
there in the twilight by the win- 
dow of the little yellow house. 

She, too, was bending over a 
black-covered pillow, only hers 
5 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


was smaller and had fewer bob- 
bins than that of the white-capped 
woman beside her; for the child 
was just beginning to learn some 
of the simpler stitches. But 
though the bit of lace on the 
pillow showed that she had made 
good progress, she was working 
now slowly and had already 
broken her thread twice, for her 
mind was full of other thoughts. 

She was thinking that the next 
night would be Christmas eve, 
and that she would set her little 
wooden shoes by the hearth, and 
that if she had been good enough 
to please the Christ-child, he 
would come while she was asleep 
and put in them some red apples 
and nuts, or perhaps — perhaps 
he might bring the little string of 
6 


KAREN ASKS ABOUT CHRISTMAS 


beads she wanted so much. For 
Flemish children do not hang up 
their stockings for Santa Claus 
as do the children of our land, 
but instead, at Christmas time, 
they set their little shoes on the 
hearth and these they expect the 
Christ-child himself to fill with 
gifts. 

As the little girl by the win- 
dow now thought and thought of 
Christmas, her fingers dropped 
the thread at last and, looking up 
from her task with her blue eyes 
full of dreams, “ Grandmother,” 
she said softly, “will the Christ- 
child surely come again to-mor- 
row night? And do you think 
he will bring me something?” 

“Why, yes, Karen, thou hast 
been a good child,” answered 
7 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


Grandmother, who was trying 
hard to finish a difficult part of her 
lace pattern before the dark fell. 

‘‘And, Grandmother,” went on 
Karen, after thinking a little 
longer, “ is it really his own 
birthday?” 

“Yes, yes, child,” said Grand- 
mother. 

“Then,” said Karen, as a be- 
wildered look crept into her eyes, 
“why is it that he brings gifts to 
me, instead of my giving some- 
thing to him? I thought on 
people’s birthdays they had pres- 
ents of their own. You know on 
my last one you gave me my blue 
kerchief, and the time before, my 
pewter mug.” Karen considered 
a moment more, and then she 
added: “Is it because we are so 


KAREN ASKS ABOUT CHRISTMAS 


poor, Grandmother, that I have 
never given the Christ-child a 
Christmas present?” 

Here Grandmother’s flying 
fingers paused an instant, though 
still holding a pair of the tiny 
bobbins, as she answered, “It is 
true we are poor, Karen, but that 
is not the reason. No one gives 
such gifts to the Christ-child. 
Thou must give him obedience 
and love ; dost thou not remember 
what Father Benedicte told thee? 
And then, too, thou knowest thou 
art to carry a wax candle to the 
cathedral for a Christmas offer- 
ing at the shrine of the Blessed 
Virgin and Child.” 

“ But,” continued Karen per- 
plexedly, “does no one give him 
something for his very own ?" 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


“There, there, child,” said 
Grandmother, with a note of 
weariness in her patient voice, “I 
cannot work and answer thy 
questions ! ” 

And Grandmother bent still 
closer over the flower of lace 
which she was trying so hard to 
finish, and the little girl became 
silent. 

After a while, from the beauti- 
ful tall belfry that soared into the 
sky from the center of the city, 
the chimes rang out the hour, and, 
no longer able to see in the gath- 
ering dusk, Grandmother rose and 
laid aside her work. 

“Come, Karen,” she said, “put 
up thy work, and get thy shawl 
and go fetch some water for the 
tea-kettle.” 


10 


KAREN ASKS ABOUT CHRISTMAS 


The little girl carefully placed 
her lace-pillow on a shelf at one 
side of the room; and taking a 
knitted shawl from a peg near the 
doorway, she ran to the dresser 
and lifted down a copper tea- 
kettle, polished till it shone. 
Then she unbarred the door and 
sped out into the snowy dusk. 

She had but a short distance 
to go to the quaint pump that 
served the neighborhood. It 
stood among the cobblestones of 
the narrow street, and had been 
made long,' long ago, when the 
workmen of even the commonest 
things loved their craft and strove 
to make everything beautiful that 
their fingers touched. So the 
pump had a wonderful spout of 
wrought iron shaped like a drag- 

II 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


on’s head; and as Karen tugged 
at the long, slender handle of the 
same metal, she laughed to see 
how the icicles hung from the 
dragon’s mouth like a long white 
beard. She liked to pretend that 
he was alive and wanting to eat 
her up, and that she was very 
brave to make him fill her tea- 
kettle; for Karen loved fairy 
stories and lived a great deal in 
her own thoughts. 

Meantime, the dragon had not 
eaten her, and the copper tea- 
kettle was brimming over with 
cold water, seeing which she 
stooped and lifting it in both 
hands, carefully carried it back to 
the little yellow house and set it 
on the hearth where Grand- 
mother had raked out some glow- 
12 


KAREN ASKS ABOUT CHRISTMAS 


ing coals. Then she lighted a 
candle, and helped prepare their 
simple evening meal of coarse 
brown bread and coffee, though 
this last was for Grandmother; 
for Karen there was a pewter 
mug full of milk. 

When they had finished their 
supper, Grandmother placed her 
lace-pillow on the table close to 
the candle and again busied her- 
self with her work. For the wife 
of Burgomaster Koerner had or- 
dered the lace, and it must be 
finished and sent home the next 
day. 

And Grandmother sorely 
needed every penny she could 
earn ; for, since Karen had 
neither father nor mother, there 
was no one but herself to gain a 
13 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


livelihood until the little girl grew 
older and could help carry the 
burden. To be sure, Grand- 
mother was not really so old as 
she looked, but many years of toil 
over the lace-pillow had bent her 
back and taken the color from 
her face. While Karen’s father 
had lived they had known more 
of comfort; but when he died and 
the mother had followed soon 
afterward, leaving her baby girl 
to Grandmother’s care, there had 
been but little left with which to 
buy their bread. That had been 
eight years before, but Grand- 
mother had struggled bravely on; 
she was one of the most skillful 
of the scores of lace-makers of 
the old city, and so she had man- 
aged still to keep the little yellow 
14 


KAREN ASKS ABOUT CHRISTMAS 


house in which she had always 
lived, and to shield Karen from 
knowing the bitterest needs of 
the poor. 

But Grandmother was weary; 
and as now she bent over the 
fairylike web of lace in which she 
had woven flowers and leaves 
from threads of filmy fineness, 
she was glad that the piece was 
almost finished, and that she 
would have the blessed Christ- 
mas day in which to rest. 

And while Grandmother’s fin- 
gers flew back and forth among 
the maze of pins, Karen was busy 
tidying up the hearth and the 
few dishes which she neatly set 
back on the old-fashioned dresser 
near the fireplace. Then she 
drew a little stool close to the 
is 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


hearth, and, resting her chin on 
one hand, looked dreamily into 
the fire. 

She was still thinking of 
Christmas eve, and the more she 
thought the more she wanted to 
give something to the Christ- 
child. For she was a generous 
hearted little girl and loved to 
share any little pleasures with her 
friends, especially those who had 
been so good to her. And she 
considered the Christ-child the 
most faithful friend she knew, 
“for,” she said to herself, “as far 
back as I can remember, he has 
come every Christmas while I 
was asleep, and has always put 
something in my wooden shoes ! 
And to think that no one gives 
him any present for himself!” 



“ RESTING HER CHIN ON ONE HAND, LOOKED DREAMILY 


INTO THE FIRE 













































































































* 
































































































KAREN ASKS ABOUT CHRISTMAS 


For Karen could not see how 
giving him one’s obedience or 
love (for, of course, every one ex- 
pected their friends to love them 
anyway!), or offering a wax candle 
in the shrine at the cathedral, 
could take the place of some little 
gift that he might have for his 
very own. 

Surely, she thought, the Christ- 
child must like these things just 
as other children do. If only she 
had some money to buy some- 
thing for him, or if only she 
had something of her own nice 
enough to offer him! She went 
over in her mind her little pos- 
sessions ; there was her blue ker- 
chief, her pewter mug, her rag 
doll, her little wooden stool ; but 
none of these things seemed just 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


right for the Christ-child. And, 
besides, she felt that he was so 
wonderful and holy that his pres- 
ent should be something not only 
beautiful, but also quite new and 
fresh. 

Poor Karen gave a sigh to 
think she had not a penny to 
buy anything; and Grandmother, 
looking up from her work, said, 
“What is the matter, child?” 
And as Karen said nothing, 
“Where is thy knitting?” asked 
Grandmother, “’tis yet a little 
while till bedtime; see if thou 
canst remember how to make thy 
stitches even, the way I showed 
thee yesterday.” 

“Yes, Grandmother,” answered 
Karen; and going into the little 
room that opened off from the 

18 


KAREN ASKS ABOUT CHRISTMAS 


living-room, she came back with a 
bit of knitting and again seating 
herself on the wooden stool, be- 
gan carefully to work the shining 
needles through some coarse blue 
yarn. For little Flemish girls 
even as young as she were not 
thought too small to be taught 
not only the making of lace, but 
also how to knit; and their hands 
were seldom allowed to be idle. 

Indeed the folk of the humbler 
class in Bruges had to work long 
and industriously to keep bread 
on their tables and a shelter over 
their heads. 

The city had once been the 
richest and most powerful in all 
Flanders, and up to her wharves 
great ships had brought wonderful 
cargoes from all over the world ; 


19 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


and the rulers of Bruges and her 
merchant citizens had lived in the 
greatest splendor. The wealthy 
people were wealthier and the 
poorer people less poor in those 
old days. But then had come 
bitter wars and oppression ; the 
harbor had slowly filled up with 
sand brought down by the river 
Zwijn, till at the time when 
Karen lived, Bruges was no 
longer the proud and glorious 
city she had once been, but was 
all the while becoming poorer 
and poorer. 

It was true there were many 
ancient families who still lived at 
ease in the beautiful old carved 
houses facing on shady squares 
or built along the edges of the 
winding canals that everywhere 
20 


KAREN ASKS ABOUT CHRISTMAS 


threaded the once busy city; 
though the quiet water of these 
now scarcely rippled save when 
the trailing branches of the over- 
hanging willow trees dipped into 
them, or a fleet of stately white 
swans went sailing along. But in 
the poorer parts of the city the 
people must work hard, and there 
were whole streets where every 
one made lace; and all day long 
women and girls, old and young, 
bent over the black-covered pil- 
lows just as Karen’s Grand- 
mother was at that moment do- 
ing. 

Grandmother’s fingers steadily 
plied the tiny bobbins in and 
out long after Karen had put 
away her knitting and crept into 
the little cupboard bed which was 
' 21 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


built into the wall of the small 
room next to the living-room. 

At last, as the candle burned 
low, the lace was finished; and 
carefully unpinning it from the 
pillow, Grandmother laid it in a 
clean napkin; and then she raked 
the ashes over the embers of the 
fire on the hearth, and soon her 
tired eyes closed in sleep as she 
lay in the high-posted bed close 
to Karen. 


22 


BUYING THE PORRINGER 


CHAPTER II 


BUYING THE PORRINGER 



;HE next morning was 
bright and clear, and 
the sunshine sparkled 
over the freshly fallen 
snow and touched all the icicles 


with rainbow light. 

Karen and her Grandmother 
were astir early. The little girl 
fetched down some wood from 
the small attic, over the living- 
room, where they kept their 
precious supply for the winter; 
and then she set the table as 


23 



THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


Grandmother prepared the por- 
ridge for their breakfast. 

After breakfast Grandmother 
took her lace-pillow and began 
arranging her pins and bobbins 
for another piece of work; and 
when Karen had dusted the sim- 
ple furniture and swept the snow 
from the doorstep, she put on her 
knitted hood and shawl, and pin- 
ning together the napkin in which 
Grandmother had placed the piece 
of lace, she set out for the home 
of Madame Koerner. 

Down the narrow street she 
passed, and then across an old 
stone bridge that spanned one of 
the lazy canals that wandered 
through the city. The ice had 
spread a thin sheet over this, and 
the beautiful white swans that 


24 


BUYING THE PORRINGER 


swam about on it in the summer- 
time had gone into the shelter of 
their little wooden house, which 
stood on the bank under a snowy 
willow tree. One of the great 
shining birds, looking herself like 
a drift of snow, stood at the door 
of the little shelter house preening 
her feathers in the sunlight, and 
Karen waved her hand to her 
with a smiling “ Good-morning, 
Madame Swan!” for she loved 
the beautiful creatures, numbers 
of which are still seen on all the 
water-ways of Bruges, and she 
always spoke to them, and some- 
times brought them crumbs from 
her bits of coarse bread at home. 

Beyond the bridge she sped on 
past rows of tall brown houses 
with here and there a little shop 
25 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


crowded in between, and pres- 
ently her way led across the 
Grande Place, a large, irregular 
square in the center of the city. 
Here there were many shops, 
and people passing to and fro; 
and among them went numbers 
of great shaggy dogs harnessed to 
little carts filled with vegetables 
or tall copper milk cans, and 
these they tugged across the cob- 
blestones to the ancient Market 
Halles from which towered the 
wonderful belfry of which every 
one in Bruges was so proud. 

Karen paused to listen while 
the silvery chimes rang out, as 
they had rung every quarter hour 
for more than three hundred 
years. 

Then she passed on into a 

26 


BUYING THE PORRINGER 


long, quiet street where the 
houses stood farther apart and 
had rows of trees in front of 
them. Some of them had high 
walls adjoining them, and behind 
these were pretty gardens, though 
now, of course, all were covered 
with the wintry snow. 

Presently Karen stopped at a 
wooden gate leading into one of 
these gardens, and pushing it 
open made her way along a wind- 
ing path to the door of a tall 
house with many gables and 
adorned with rare old carvings. 
This was the home of Madame 
Koerner; the house really faced 
on the street, but the little girl 
did not like to go to the more 
stately entrance, and so chose the 
smaller one that opened into the 

27 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


garden. She knocked timidly, 
for she was a little in awe of 
Madame Koerner, who seemed to 
her a very grand lady. But the 
maid who opened the door knew 
Karen and led her in and took 
her at once to the upstairs room 
where Madame Koerner sat with 
a fine piece of needlework in her 
lap. 

Madame Koerner smiled kindly 
at the little girl, who had several 
times before brought Grand- 
mother’s lace to her. “ Good- 
morning, Karen,” she said, “ I am 
so glad to have the lace, for now 
I can finish this cap, which I 
want for a Christmas gift.” And 
then as she unfolded the napkin 
and looked at the lace, “O,” she 
cried, “how lovely it is! No one 


BUYING THE PORRINGER 


in all Bruges does more beautiful 
work than thy Grandmother, little 
one! And some day, I dare say, 
thou, too, wilt do just as well, for 
I know thou art learning fast.” 
And she smiled again, and patted 
Karen’s hands as the little girl 
held out the lace for her to see. 

Karen colored with pleasure 
to hear Grandmother’s work 
praised, as indeed it deserved ; for 
the delicate scrolls and flowers 
and leaves of it looked as if made 
of frost and caught in a net of 
pearly cobwebs. 

Madame Koerner was so 
pleased with it that when the 
little girl laid it down, she looked 
in her purse and gave her a gen- 
erous gold piece for Grandmother, 
and then she added a smaller 

29 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


piece of silver for Karen herself; 
“That is for thee, little one,” she 
said. “ And I hope thou wilt have 
a very happy Christmas.” 

Karen thanked her shyly, and 
as with shining eyes she turned 
to go, Madame Koerner said, 
“ Go out through the kitchen, 
child, and tell Marie, the cook, 
to fill thy napkin with some of 
the little cakes she is baking.” 

So when once more Karen 
tripped out into the street, her 
heart was very light and her 
mind full of happy thoughts as 
she tightly clasped in one hand 
the gold piece for Grandmother, 
and in the other the franc of 
silver which Madame Koerner 
had given for her own, and the 
napkin filled with the Christmas 
30 


BUYING THE PORRINGER 


cakes. These were the kind that 
all Flemish children delight in, 
and were made of fine ginger- 
bread and filled with candied 
orange peel and red cherries. 

As Karen came near the 
Grande Place and saw the Mar- 
ket Halles, her eyes fairly danced, 
for she knew the Christmas mar- 
ket was going on there, and all 
the way from Madame Koerner’s 
she had kept saying to herself: 
“Now I can buy a present for 
the Christ-child and one for 
Grandmother ! ” 

Outside the Halles the cobble- 
stones had been swept clean of 
snow, and a few hardy dealers 
had placed their wares for sale 
out of doors. But these were 
chiefly sellers of leather harnesses 
31 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


for the patient Flemish dogs, of 
wooden shoes and coarse baskets; 
and some had piled in front of 
them small bundles of fire-wood 
and fagots. But none of these 
wares interested Karen, and so 
she stepped inside the Halles 
where one might find all manner 
of things for sale. Here were 
stalls piled with different colored 
cloths, with kerchiefs and laces; 
in others were displayed great 
earthen pots and pans and other 
gear for the kitchen. And there 
were sellers of Christmas trinkets, 
and wax candles, and what not; 
of the milk in the tall copper 
cans the dogs had drawn thither 
in their little carts; of winter vege- 
tables, and food and sweetmeats 
of various kinds. 


32 


BUYING THE PORRINGER 


“See!” called a white-capped 
woman, who sat behind a stall 
heaped with little cakes, “here are 
caraway cookies fit for the king’s 
children, and only four sous the 
dozen ! ” 

But Karen felt very rich with 
the Christmas cakes in her nap- 
kin, and so was not to be 
tempted. As she stepped slowly 
along, looking first at one side 
and then the other, presently she 
came to a stall where colored 
beads and trinkets of many kinds 
were arranged on a long strip of 
scarlet cloth. As she saw these, 
she could not help but stop and 
look longingly at a little necklace 
of blue beads, the very kind she 
had wanted for so long a time! 

At this stall sat another white- 
33 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


capped woman dealer, who, see- 
ing the wistful look in Karen’s 
face, said: “Well, my child, if 
thou canst give me ten sous, thou 
canst take home with thee this 
pretty trinket. ’Tis a fair match 
for thine eyes, little maid ! ” 

Karen’s blue eyes began to 
brim with tears, for she knew ten 
sous were only half a franc, and 
she did want the beads so very, 
very much ! But after one more 
longing look she resolutely passed 
on, still tightly holding her silver 
franc; for, much as she wanted 
the necklace, she was determined 
that the Christ-child and Grand- 
mother should have their gifts, 
and she was afraid even her won- 
derful franc might not be enough 
for all. 


34 


BUYING THE PORRINGER 


So she went on, still looking 
carefully at each stall she passed, 
and all the while growing more 
and more perplexed trying to 
decide which were the very pret- 
tiest things she could buy. She 
had gone more than half the 
length of the market, and was 
becoming bewildered and a little 
frightened as she hugged her 
shawl about her and made her 
way as best she could among the 
different groups of buyers and 
sellers. And then, by and by, 
her face lighted up with pleasure 
as she stopped in front of a pot- 
tery dealer’s stall. This was pre- 
sided over by a kindly faced man 
in a workman’s blouse. On a 
smooth board in front of him 
were all kinds of the coarser 

35 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


wares of Flanders, and also 
some pieces made by the peas- 
ant folk of Normandy and Brit- 
tany, countries not far away; and 
among these smaller pieces Karen 
had spied a little porringer. It 
was just an humble little earthen 
dish such as the peasants of Brit- 
tany make for their children to 
use for their bread and milk ; but 
it was gayly painted, and Karen 
thought it the most beautiful por- 
ringer she had ever seen. Its 
flat handles were colored a bright 
yet soft blue, and around the 
inner edge of its bowl were 
bands of blue and red, and right 
in the bottom was painted a little 
peasant girl ; she wore a blue 
dress and a white and orange 
colored apron, and on her head 
36 


BUYING THE PORRINGER 


was a pointed white cap. She 
carried in one hand a red rose, 
and on either side of her was a 
stiff little rose-tree with red blos- 
soms. It was all crudely done, 
yet had a quaint charm of its 
own, a charm lacked by many a 
more finely finished piece ; and 
as it stood there leaning against 
a tall brown jar behind it, the 
little girl in the porringer seemed 
to smile back at Karen as she 
paused, rapt in admiration. 

For Karen was quite sure that 
at last she had found the very 
thing for the blessed Christ-child. 
Indeed, she felt it was the one 
thing of all the things she had 
seen, that she most wanted to 
buy for him. And then, too, 
just beyond the porringer, a little 
37 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


farther down on the board, she 
saw a small, green jug that she 
was sure Grandmother would 
like. She wondered if they cost 
very much, and hardly dared to 
ask the pottery dealer. But pres- 
ently she summoned up her cour- 
age, and, pointing to the little 
porringer and the jug, she said in 
a timid voice, “Please, sir, tell 
me, can I buy these for my 
franc ? ” And she held out to 
him her little palm, where lay the 
silver franc all warm and moist 
from the tight clasp of her rosy 
fingers. 

The dealer looked at her anx- 
ious face and smiled at her as 
he said : “ Dost thou want them 
so very much, little one? Truly 
thou canst have them for thy 
38 





■ 


KAREN CALLED OUT MERRILY, ‘ DEAR MADAM SWAN, 

! ’ ” 


I HAVE BOUGHT THE MOST WONDERFUL THINGS 









































































BUYING THE PORRINGER 


franc. My price would be some 
fifteen sous more, but for the 
sake of thy sweet face and the 
blessed Christmas time coming, 
thou shalt have them.” And he 
put them into Karen’s arms as 
she smiled her delight. 

The little girl was so happy 
that she fairly skimmed over the 
snowy cobblestones. When she 
came to the old bridge spanning 
the icy canal, the white swan was 
still standing on the bank blink- 
ing in the sunlight, and Karen 
called out merrily, “ Dear Ma- 
dame Swan, I have bought the 
most wonderful things ! ” And 
then she laughed a little silvery 
laugh, for her heart was so light 
it was fairly bubbling over with 
happiness. 


39 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


When she reached the little 
yellow house she bounded up the 
step, and, standing on the sill 
close to the door, she called 
“ Grandmother ! Grandmother ! 
Please let me in ! I cannot open 
the door!” 

Grandmother, hearing her, hur- 
ried to unlatch it, and Karen 
burst in with “Oh, Grandmother, 
see these beautiful Christmas 
cakes that Marie gave me ! And 
here is a gold piece for your lace ! ” 

And then having freed one 
hand, she pulled her shawl tightly 
together over the other things, 
and smiling delightedly, cried 
“ And Madame Koerner gave 
me a silver franc for my very 
own, and I spent it in the Mar- 
ket Halles!” 


40 


BUYING THE PORRINGER 


“Thou hast already spent it?” 
asked Grandmother reprovingly. 
“ Karen ! Karen ! wilt thou never 
learn to save thy pennies ? What 
hast thou bought ? ” 

“ Oh,” answered Karen, as her 
face fell, “ I wanted one of them 
to be a secret till to-morrow ! 
They are Christmas presents ! 
But I wanted to show the other ” 
— here she broke off confusedly; 
she had meant to say she wanted 
to show the porringer to Grand- 
mother, but now she had not the 
heart. “ But, Grandmother,” she 
went on earnestly, “it was my 
own franc, and I love to buy 
gifts! And you know I couldn’t 
last year because I had no 
pennies.” 

“Well, well, child,” said Grand- 


41 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


mother, softening, “thou hast a 
generous heart, only thou shouldst 
not have spent all thy franc ; thou 
hadst done better to put some 
by for another time.” 

Karen said nothing, though the 
tears of disappointment sprang to 
her eyes. She had wanted so 
much to show the porringer and 
share her joy in it with Grand- 
mother. But now she felt that 
it would not be approved of since 
Grandmother thought her so fool- 
ish to spend all her franc, and es- 
pecially since she had said that 
no one gave Christmas presents to 
the Christ-child. But though that 
had seemed to settle the matter 
for Grandmother, it only made 
Karen the more anxious to do 
so. She said to herself that if 


42 


BUYING THE PORRINGER 


no one gave the Christ-child pres- 
ents, it was all the more reason 
why she should — surely some- 
body ought to ! And so she was 
not in the least sorry that she 
had not saved any of her franc. 
And she tried to think, too, that 
perhaps Grandmother would like 
a Christmas present herself, for 
all she said the money should 
not have been spent; perhaps 
when Grandmother saw the little 
green jug, she would think it so 
pretty that she would be glad that 
Karen had bought it. But she 
was not to see it till Christmas 
morning, for Karen meant to put 
it in her shoe just as the Christ- 
child did for children. 

So presently her face bright- 
ening up, while Grandmother 

43 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


went on with her work, she ran 
into the other room and pulling 
open a deep drawer from a 
clothes-press that stood against 
the wall, she thrust the precious 
gifts under the folded clothes to 
stay hidden until she wanted 
them. 

After dinner Grandmother be- 
gan to prick the pattern for the 
new piece of lace she was begin- 
ning, and Karen knitted a while 
until it was time for the vesper 
service in the old cathedral of 
Saint Sauveur, whose tall tower 
rose above the steep housetops 
not far away. 

When the bells began chiming, 
Grandmother and the little girl, 
laying aside their work, made 
themselves ready; and each 

44 


car- 


BUYING THE PORRINGER 


rying a white wax candle, which 
Grandmother had taken pains to 
provide some time before, they 
trudged off down the street. 

When they reached the cathe- 
dral and entered through the 
great carved portal, the late after- 
noon light was falling in softly 
colored bars through the multi- 
tude of richly stained windows. 
As Karen gazed around at the 
many shrines where hundreds of 
wax tapers brought by other wor- 
shippers were already dotting the 
brightly colored air with their tiny 
golden flames, they looked so 
beautiful that for a moment she 
wondered if perhaps after all the 
Christ-child might not like the 
wax candles best. But the more 
she thought, she decided that he 

45 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


would surely be pleased to have 
something for really his own ; for, 
of course, the candles were partly 
for God and the Blessed Virgin ; 
and so she was glad she had the 
porringer that should be entirely 
his. 

After the vesper service was 
over, and they were back again 
in the little house, the rest of 
the day passed very quickly for 
Karen. After supper Grand- 
mother dozed a while in her chair 
beside the hearth ; and then 
Karen ran into their sleeping- 
room and hurriedly took out the 
porringer and the green jug from 
their hiding-place in the clothes- 
press. Grandmother had put on 
some old slippers in place of the 
heavy wooden shoes she had 

46 


BUYING THE PORRINGER 


worn all day, and these sabots 
were standing on the floor near 
her bed. 

The room was dark, but Karen 
felt around till she found the 
sabots ; and then she gave a little 
suppressed laugh of pleasure as 
she thrust the little green jug as 
far as it would go in one of 
them. She knew Grandmother 
would not find it till morning, for 
they never thought of having a 
light by which to go to bed; a 
candle for the living-room was all 
they could afford. 

After placing the green jug in 
Grandmother’s shoe, Karen stood 
for a moment thinking where she 
would put the porringer. She 
wanted the Christ-child to find it 
without any trouble; for he must 
47 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


be in a great hurry with so many 
children’s houses to visit and sa- 
bots to fill. She thought first 
that when she took off hers for 
the night and stood them on the 
hearth to wait for him, she would 
set the porringer beside them. 
But then she remembered that at 
midnight, when he would come, 
the room would be quite dark; 
for Grandmother would put out 
the candle, and cover up the fire 
with ashes. And while, of course, 
the Christ-child expected sabots 
to be ready for him on the hearth 
and so could fill them in the dark, 
just as she had put the jug in 
Grandmother’s, still, he might 
miss the porringer as that he 
would not be expecting, and so 
would not look for it. 

48 


BUYING THE PORRINGER 


Then, all at once, Karen re- 
membered that out of doors it 
was moonlight ; for, when she 
had fastened the wooden shutters 
at the front windows, the moon 
was rising round and silvery 
above the peaked roofs across 
the way. As she thought of this 
her perplexity vanished, and again 
a smile came to her lips as she 
said to herself : “ I will set it 
outside on the doorstep, and the 
Christ-child will be sure to see 
it when he comes, and, of course, 
he will know it was meant for 
him, for he knows all about 
Christmas presents!” 

Karen was greatly pleased 
with this plan ; and so giving one 
more look at the little girl in the 
porringer, she took up two of 
49 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


the Christmas cakes from the 
dish on the table, and, squeezing 
them into its bowl, she went to 
the door and softly unbarred it ; 
then, setting the porringer on the 
doorstep where the moonlight 
touched it, she again shut and 
fastened the door. 

Grandmother roused from her 
doze before long, and sent Ka- 
ren to bed, while she herself 
stayed up to knit to the end of 
her skein. 

But long after the little girl lay 
in her cupboard bed her blue 
eyes were wide open with excite- 
ment. On the hearth in the liv- 
ing-room stood her little wooden 
shoes waiting for the visit of the 
Christ-child, and she longed with 
all her might to see him! And 
s° 


BUYING THE PORRINGER 


she longed, too, to know if he 
would be pleased with the por- 
ringer. But Grandmother had 
always told her that he did not 
like to be watched, and would 
not come till children were asleep. 

By and by, after what seemed 
to Karen a very long time, her 
eyes began to blink, and she fell 
asleep and slept so soundly that 
she did not know when Grand- 
mother put out the candle and 
covered up the fire and came to 
bed. Nor did she waken later 
on when peals of bells from the 
tall belfry and the cathedral and 
all the many churches of Bruges 
rang in the Christmas, and the 
sweet echoes of chanting voices 
and the songs of innumerable 
choristers floated over the city as 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


the holy midnight mass was cele- 
brated. 

The rain of music thrilled and 
quivered through the frosty air, 
and then slowly it died away ; and 
the Christmas stars shone and 
twinkled, and the great silver 
moon flooded the quiet night 
with a white radiance. 


52 


ROBBER HANS 


CHAPTER III 



ROBBER HANS 

’HE midnight music had 
ceased for some time, 
and The Little Street 
Of The Holy Ghost 
was very quiet and deserted, as 
indeed it had been all the eve- 
ning. But presently any one 
looking up it might have seen a 
man moving swiftly along. He 
did not walk like honest folk, but 
trod softly on the narrow flag- 
stones close to the tall old houses, 
and seemed to try to keep within 



THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


their shadows ; and his eyes were 
all the while alertly watching 
everything about him. 

As he came in front of the little 
yellow house the moon was slowly 
sinking behind a high gable across 
the street, but a last ray of silvery 
light fell across the doorstep, and 
just touched the edge of the por- 
ringer as it stood where Karen 
had placed it. 

The man’s keen eyes caught 
the gleam of something there, and 
though he could not tell exactly 
what it was, as the moonlight 
was waning fast, he nevertheless 
stooped quickly, and seizing the 
porringer in his hand, thrust it into 
the great pocket of his ragged coat. 
Then he hurried on and turned 
the corner and soon was lost in 

54 





THE MAN’S KEEN EYES CAUGHT THE GLEAM OF SOME- 

>5 


THING THERE 



















































•'I 

























ROBBER HANS 


the shadows of a narrow passage- 
way between two old houses. 

N ow, this man was known 
among evil-doers as “Hans the 
Robber,” and many times the 
watchmen of Bruges had tried to 
catch him and punish him because 
he had stolen so many things 
from honest folk. 

But always he managed to get 
away from them; or, if they 
came to the miserable hut where 
he lived at the edge of the city, 
he had some story to tell that 
deceived them so they could prove 
nothing against him, or else he 
contrived to hide until they got 
tired searching for him. 

But people suspected him and 
shunned him as much as possible. 
On this night he had gone out 
55 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


hoping that while many were in 
the churches attending the mid- 
night mass, he might find a 
chance to creep into some house 
and rob the owner of whatever he 
could. But he had not had good 
success in his dishonest work. T o 
be sure, he had stolen a silver cup 
from one place; but then he had 
been frightened off before he 
could secure more, and so he had 
decided to try another and quieter 
part of the city ; and as he came 
along the deserted Little Street 
Of The Holy Ghost and saw the 
porringer on the doorstep, he took 
it, because he always took every- 
thing he could. 

When, after dropping it into 
his pocket, he went around the 
corner and into the passage-way, 
56 


ROBBER HANS 


he reached his hand stealthily 
through the half closed shutters 
of a tall house beside him and 
tried to unfasten the window so 
that he might steal in. But just 
then he heard some one stirring 
within, and angrily muttering to 
himself, he fled away. 

Here and there, as he hurried 
along, the waning moonbeams still 
shed a lingering light ; and be- 
sides, it was getting so near dawn 
time that at last he decided that 
it was no use trying to get in any- 
where else that night ; and so he 
went back to his hut. When he 
reached this, he first carefully hid 
the silver cup he had stolen, by 
putting it in a cranny under a 
loose board in the floor; then 
throwing himself down on a rude 
57 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


bed of straw heaped in a corner, 
he soon fell into a heavy sleep. 

When Hans the Robber awoke 
next morning, the hut was cold 
and cheerless. He rose from his 
wretched bed, and found a few 
billets of wood with which he 
kindled some fire on the untidy 
hearth. 

In the bare cupboard he found 
little save crusts of black bread ; 
and as he ate these he sat down 
on a rickety bench, which he 
pulled close to the fire, and drew 
his ragged coat closer around 
him. 

Everything looked very dreary 
and desolate to him; and, as he 
heard the Christmas bells begin- 
ning to ring, a bitter look came 
into his face, for it had been 
58 


ROBBER HANS 


many years since Christmas had 
meant anything to Robber Hans. 
He shrugged his shoulders, and 
thrust both hands into the pockets 
of his coat. As he did so, he felt 
something in one of them which 
he had forgotten all about ; and 
then drawing out the little por- 
ringer, which still held the two 
Christmas cakes, he stared at it in 
surprise. 

“Now, where could I have 
picked up that?” he said to him- 
self, as he set it down on the 
bench beside him. Then he re- 
membered how he had taken 
some object from the doorstep of 
a little yellow house that stood 
on a corner. 

He took up one of the little 
cakes and broke it, and, as he was 
59 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


hungry, in two bites he had eaten 
it. As he took the other one in 
his fingers, he began to look at it 
curiously and to think. 

Robber Hans had not eaten a 
little cake like that for years and 
years. All at once, with a start, 
old memories began to waken in 
his mind ; for the little cake made 
him think of when he was a little 
boy and his mother had made 
just such wonderful little ginger 
cakes full of orange-peel and red 
cherries. And then, as he looked 
at the empty porringer, he stared 
at it with an almost startled look, 
for he remembered how he used 
to eat his bread and milk from a 
porringer exactly like that; only 
instead of a little girl painted in 
the bowl, in his was a little boy. 

6o 


ROBBER HANS 


Robber Hans could remember 
precisely how that little boy 
looked in his blue blouse and 
wooden shoes, and on his head 
a broad-brimmed hat of Breton 
straw, with a red ribbon on it. 

For Robber Hans as a child 
had lived in the old seaport town 
of Quiberon, in Brittany, where 
his father was a fisherman. His 
mother’s home before she married 
had been in Bruges, and so it 
was that at holiday time she al- 
ways made for the little family of 
children the Christmas cakes like 
that which Robber Hans now 
held in his hand. 

As he remembered all these 
things he forgot all about being 
cold and hungry. Presently, lay- 
ing down the little cake, he took 

61 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


up the porringer and looked 
closely at the little girl holding 
the red rose in her hand. 

Robber Hans in those far- 
away days had had a little sister 
whom he dearly loved; and the 
more he looked at the little girl 
in the porringer, the more he 
thought of his little sister Ems- 
chen, till presently he was sure 
that the face looking up at him 
from under the stiff white cap 
was the face of Emschen. It 
did not matter whether it looked 
like the little sister or not, for 
before the eyes of Robber Hans 
memory was bringing back her 
face so clearly that to him it 
seemed really there. Yes, and 
he was quite sure, too, that Ems- 
chen had worn a little apron like 
62 


ROBBER. HANS 


that; and there was the rose in 
her hand, and he remembered 
how she had loved roses ! 

It all came back to him how 
when they were children together 
he had made a little flower bed 
for her, close by their cottage 
door, and how both of them had 
carried white scallop shells from 
the edge of the sea and laid them 
around it, making a pretty bor- 
der; and how pleased Emschen 
had been when her first little 
rosebush had a blossom, and how 
wonderfully it had flourished in 
the salt sea air, as do all the roses 
of Brittany. 

And then more and more 
things came back to his memory, 
and the longer he looked and 
thought, his own face began grad- 
63 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


ually to soften, till, by and by, the 
oddest thing happened — a great 
tear fell into the porringer and 
lay there like a drop of dew on 
one of the painted rose-trees ! 

At this he roused himself, and, 
quickly brushing his hand across 
his eyes, he angrily thrust the por- 
ringer from him, and the bitter 
look came back into his face. For 
his memory, having started, would 
not stop with the pleasant days 
when he was a little boy in Qui- 
beron, but went on and on, bring- 
ing freshly back to him how 
father, mother, and Emschen, all 
were gone; the father drowned 
in the stormy Breton sea, and the 
mother and Emschen sleeping in 
the wind-swept God’s acre of 
Quiberon, with no one to lay on 

64 


ROBBER HANS 


their graves even so much as a 
green holly leaf at Christmas time, 
or a wild poppy flower on Mid- 
summer day. He saw in memory 
his brothers grown up and scat- 
tered from the old home, and 
himself become a sailor roving the 
sea to many lands ; and then later 
on drifting ashore in the Flemish 
country, and overtaken by mis- 
fortune after misfortune, till at 
last he had fallen so low that 
here in Bruges, his mother’s old 
home, he was known only as 
Robber Hans ! 

He rose to his feet, and, in a 
fit of sudden anger, because of 
his wasted and unhappy life, he 
seized the little porringer which 
had reminded him of what he had 
lost, and was about to dash it to 
65 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


pieces on the bricks of the hearth. 
But, just as he raised his hand, 
something seemed to stop him. 
He could not tell why, but in- 
stead of breaking the porringer 
he slowly walked over to the 
empty cupboard and placed it on 
the shelf. Then, bewildered by 
his own action, he stood a mo- 
ment and stared at it. 

Presently, as his unhappy 
thoughts came crowding back 
again, his bitterness and anger 
rose as before, and he wanted to 
be rid of the porringer. But in- 
stead of trying to break it this 
time, another idea occurred to 
him. “ There ! ” he muttered 
gruffly to himself, as he turned 
away from the cupboard, “It can 
stay there till to-morrow, and then 
66 


ROBBER HANS 


I will take it with the silver cup 
and sell it at the thieves’ market ! ” 

That was a place in the old 
city where those who lived by 
stealing from others were accus- 
tomed to dispose of their spoils ; 
and so among themselves they 
called it the “ thieves’ market.” 
The dealer who kept the place 
and who bought their stolen arti- 
cles knew how to send them 
around quietly and sell them, usu- 
ally in other cities, where there 
was less danger of their being 
discovered by their rightful own- 
ers. 

Robber Hans had many times 
before disposed of his dishonestly 
gotten things to the keeper of the 
thieves’ market; and so when he 
made up his mind to sell the por- 
67 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


ringer along with the silver cup, 
he knew very well where to take 
them. But he knew, too, that he 
would have to wait till the next 
day, for the dealer would prob- 
ably not be in his place until 
Christmas was over. 

Having thus made up his mind 
how to rid himself of the porrin- 
ger, and meantime having noth- 
ing to do in the hut, he thrust on 
his battered cap, and pulling it 
down over his eyes, he strode out 
into the street. 

After wandering aimlessly about 
for some time, at last he made 
his way to a certain quay, or 
open space, on the edge of one 
of the many old canals of the 
city. There were numbers of 
these embankments which had 
68 


ROBBER HANS 


been made, in the days of Bruges’ 
prosperity, as mooring places for 
the freighted barges that carried 
her commerce. And though the 
barges had long since deserted 
all but a few of the quiet water- 
ways, still the quays bore their old 
Flemish names. Thus, the one 
to which Hans had wandered 
was called the Quai du Rosaire. 
Here a moss-grown stone bridge 
crossed the water, and in a paved 
square near by and in a tumble- 
down old brown house facing the 
square, for three days of every 
week a fish market was held. 
And here, on holidays, the 
rougher folk of Bruges would 
gather to amuse themselves. 

Robber Hans crossed the 
paved square and entered the old 

69 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


house, where he was greeted bois- 
terously as he joined the noisy 
company. But somehow their 
rough talk and rude actions did 
not please him as they had often 
done before. He was silent and 
moody, and at last the others 
taunted him so with his sour 
looks, that he got up from a 
bench where he was sitting beside 
a tipsy fishmonger, and, flinging 
back some scornful words, he left 
the place and went out. 

Again he wandered aimlessly 
along the snowy streets ; till after 
a while the wintry wind blew 
through his ragged coat and he 
shivered with cold. He was, by 
this time, near the great square 
where the belfry rose from the 
Halles, and making his way to 

70 


ROBBER HANS 


this, he crept into the shelter of 
its entrance. Then, in a little 
while, he ventured inside and 
dropped down on the long, 
wooden seat between its tall win- 
dows. And though many who 
came and went through the 
Halles looked at him suspiciously, 
no one cared to make him go 
away, for it was the blessed 
Christmas day, and so the hearts 
of all were kindlier for the while. 

As he leaned back against the 
wall, by and by the warmth of 
the room made him drowsy and 
he fell asleep. And, as he slept, 
there flitted through his brain a 
great many confused dreams ; and 
with almost all of them the 
thoughts started by the little 
porringer seemed somehow to 
71 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


be connected. Sometimes he 
dreamed he was a little boy again, 
in Quiberon ; and then Emschen 
would seem to be running toward 
him with a red rose in her hand; 
but always when she came near 
to him, though she put out her 
hands to him, he could not touch 
her, and the red rose faded and 
fell apart. And then the dreams 
trailed off so dim and shadowy 
that when at last he awakened 
Hans could not remember just 
what it was that he had been 
dreaming. He only vaguely knew 
that it had something to do with the 
porringer and that it had made 
him unhappy ; and as he stumbled 
to his feet and set out for his 
hut, he again determined to get 
rid of it as soon as he could. 

72 


ROBBER HANS AND THE PORRINGER 


CHAPTER IV 

ROBBER HANS AND THE PORRIN- 
GER 

HE next morning Hans 
thrust in his pocket the 
silver cup and the por- 
ringer, which he took 
pains not to look at again, and 
went out to find the dealer to 
whom he might sell them. 

He threaded his way through 
the narrow, crooked streets till 
by and by he came to a rickety 
wooden house standing behind 
some tall old warehouses that 
fronted on a canal. These had 
73 



THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


once been piled high with rich 
stuffs in the great days of Bruges, 
but now they were deserted and 
falling into decay. 

Hans, after looking cautiously 
about him, quickly approached 
the rickety house and knocked in 
an odd way, which was his signal, 
so that the dealer within would 
know it was not one of the offi- 
cers of the city come to arrest 
him. For, of course, it was 
against the law to buy stolen 
goods; though the laws then in 
Bruges were not so well looked 
after as they should have been. 
And so the dishonest trade within 
the old house had been carried 
on for some time undisturbed. 

As Hans now entered the 
heavy wooden door, which he 

74 


ROBBER HANS AND THE PORRINGER 


quickly closed and barred behind 
him, he found himself in a dimly 
lighted room where the brown 
rafters showed hung thick with 
cobwebs. This was the place 
known to him and his kind as the 
“ thieves’ market.” Around the 
walls were a number of shelves 
and on these were arranged all 
manner of things; some of them 
costly and others of little value, 
but all stolen from one place or 
another; for this was a favorite 
spot for evil-doers to dispose of 
their plunder. 

As Hans strode to the middle 
of the room and stood before a 
narrow counter that divided it, a 
little old man, who was busy sort- 
ing some wares behind a pile of 
boxes, turned around with “ Good 
75 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


day, Robber Hans! And what 
hast thou brought to Father Deaf- 
and-Blind?” For so the little 
old man, with his cunning eyes 
and hard, wicked face, was called 
by those who dealt with him ; be- 
cause he always pretended that 
he neither saw nor heard that the 
things they brought to sell had 
been stolen from their rightful 
owners. 

But Hans was in no mood for 
talk as sullenly he drew from his 
pocket the silver cup and without 
a word placed it on the counter. 

“Ah!” cried the little old man, 
greedily seizing the cup and look- 
ing closely at it. “ This mark 
must come off ; yes, and this coat- 
of-arms! Hm, ’twill be some 
trouble to do that skillfully ! ” And 


ROBBER HANS AND THE PORRINGER 


then turning it round again and 
considering the coat-of-arms, “ Let 
me see,” he went on inquiringly, 
still looking at it. “There! now 
I have it! ’Tis the mark of the 
Groene family. Have they ‘pre- 
sented’. this to thee lately, or is 
it one of the ‘gifts’ of last 
month, when several families were 
so generous to thee, eh ? ” 

This pretending that they were 
presents was the usual way in 
which Father Deaf -and -Blind 
asked about stolen goods; and as 
now he chuckled and fixed his 
shrewd eyes upon Hans, the latter 
muttered a low reply, and, after 
some chaffering, the old man took 
a bag from an iron box under the 
counter and counted out a sum 
of silver, which Hans swept into 
77 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


his pocket. Then he took out 
the porringer and set it beside 
the cup. 

“Ho,” said the old man con- 
temptuously, “I’ll warrant such 
peasant gear was never sheltered 
under the same roof as this silver 
cup!” For in the stately old 
homes of Bruges, such as that of 
the Groene family, where things 
had been handed down from gen- 
eration to generation, even the 
pots and pans in the kitchens were 
of fine and costly workmanship. 
And the moment he looked at it, 
Father Deaf-and-Blind knew very 
well that the little earthenware 
porringer had been made by peas- 
ant folk for the use of humble 
people like themselves. 

And so the old dealer, giving 
78 


ROBBER HANS AND THE PORRINGER 


it another brief glance, added : 
“Thou must have picked up that 
while paying a visit to the chil- 
dren’s God’s-House!” For so 
the people of Bruges called the 
almshouse where the homeless 
children of the poor were shel- 
tered and cared for. 

Hans had turned away his eyes 
when he set the porringer down, 
for he did not want to see it 
again and have the old memories 
come back to haunt him. But 
now, before he knew what he 
was doing, he looked down in the 
bowl, straight into the face of the 
little girl ; and immediately it be- 
came the face of Emschen, and 
her eyes looked up so mournfully 
into the eyes of Robber Hans, 
and the little smile on her lips 
79 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


was so sad it was as if her heart 
was breaking! And Hans, turn- 
ing very white, scarcely knew 
what he did as he put out his 
hand tremblingly and carefully 
lifted the porringer from the 
counter. 

“Hold!” cried Father Deaf- 
and-Blind, who was surprised at 
Hans’ action, and who really 
thought the porringer a quaint 
and pretty bit of earthenware, 
“ ’tis not so bad for some burgher 
customer. I will give five sous 
for it.” 

But Hans had already replaced 
the porringer in his pocket, and 
without another word he turned, 
and going straight to the door, he 
unbarred it and went out. 

As the old man swiftly crossed 

80 


ROBBER. HANS AND THE PORRINGER 


the room to refasten the door, he 
muttered to himself, “ I wonder 
what ails friend Hans this morn- 
ing? He is as cross as a fish- 
wife when the catch is bad, and 
he acts as if he had been robbed 
of his wits or else left them be- 
hind in his miserable hut ! ” And 
then he went back to the counter 
and began to weigh the silver cup 
and consider how he could best 
smooth away the tell-tale marks. 

As for Robber Hans, when 
again he found himself walking 
the snowy streets, he walked as 
one in a dream. It was no use 
trying to avoid it ; the sad little 
face of Emschen seemed to hover 
before his eyes wherever he 
turned ; and another thing, of 
which he had not before thought, 

81 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


began to trouble him. Old 
Father Deaf-and-Blind’s chance 
speech about the children’s God’s- 
House had reminded him that 
the porringer he had stolen must 
have belonged to some poor child ; 
and, for the first time in a great 
many years, Hans really began to 
feel ashamed of himself. He 
tried again to remember just 
where he had picked up the por- 
ringer; and though it had not 
occurred to him at the time he 
took it, now he said to himself: 
“ Why was it outside on the door- 
step ? ’Twas a queer place to 
find it !” 

Hans wished with all his heart 
that he had let it stay there, since 
it was making him so uncomfort- 
able and seemed so impossible to 

82 


ROBBER HANS AND THE PORRINGER 


get rid of, or even to get it out 
of his thoughts! For still his 
mind went on puzzling to account 
for the porringer having been on 
the doorstep. Finally, however, 
he decided that as it was on the 
night before Christmas that he 
had taken it, probably it was a 
gift that some friend had brought 
for a child who must live in the 
little yellow house; and perhaps 
no one had been at home to open 
the door, and so the porringer 
had been left on the step. 

Having explained it to himself 
in this way, for the first time such 
an idea had troubled him since 
he had become a robber, the feel- 
ing came to him that he ought to 
take it back where it belonged — 
it seemed so shameful to rob a 
83 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


child, and a poor child at that! 
But, he thought, he could not take it 
back in broad daylight ! N o, he de- 
cided, if he did so, it must be after 
night, when no one could see him. 

As he was thinking all this 
over, without noticing where he 
was going, his steps had brought 
him to the part of the city where 
there were a number of shops, and 
he remembered that he was hun- 
gry, for he had had no breakfast. 
He went into one of the shops 
and asked for some food. The 
shopkeeper looked at him suspi- 
ciously. “ Thou art a burly beg- 
gar!” he said. “There are far 
too many needy poor in Bruges 
to give to such as thou ! ” 

“I am no beggar!” said Hans, 
angrily, displaying one of his 
84 


ROBBER. HANS AND THE PORRINGER 


silver coins. “ Here is silver for 
thy meat and bread, and see to it 
thou dost not cheat me ! ” 

The shopkeeper, muttering to 
himself, supplied a dish of food; 
though he was glad when Hans 
had finished eating it and left the 
shop, for he did not think that 
he looked like an honest man or 
that he had come by the silver 
honestly. Now, on Hans’ part, 
when in order to pay the shop- 
keeper he had put his hand in his 
pocket for a piece of the silver 
he had received for the stolen 
cup, his fingers touched the por- 
ringer first; and, he could not 
have told why, he took the rest of 
the silver out and put it in the 
pocket on the other side of his 
coat. 


85 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


Perhaps, in some vague way, 
he did not quite like to have 
that ill-gotten money right there 
with the picture of Emschen ; for 
to his mind the little girl in the 
porringer had become so bound 
up with Emschen that it might 
as well have really been her pic- 
ture. 

And then as Hans went far- 
ther along the street, he did an- 
other queer thing ; he deliber- 
ately turned down a narrow way 
that led to one of the many old 
quays of the city, and began to 
look at the ships that were lying 
moored close beside it. 

In the days of the bygone 
glory of Bruges, her harbor, now 
choked up with sand, and her 
many canals, had been thronged 
86 


ROBBER HANS AND THE PORRINGER 


with vessels from all over the 
world, and every quay had been 
a place of busy work all day 
long and often through the night. 
And now, though most of them 
were deserted and moss-grown, 
still on the banks of one canal, 
which connected Bruges with the 
not far distant sea-port city of 
Ostend, there were several quays 
to which came small fishing ves- 
sels and various ships that traded 
along the coast of Flanders. 

It happened that on that day 
there were two or three schooners 
lying at the quay to which Hans 
had come. He had come there 
because with all the thoughts of 
his childhood that had been 
stirred to life by the little por- 
ringer, there had wakened the 
87 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


memory of the sea as it rolled 
and surged beyond the grey 
rocks of the Quiberon coast He 
began to long for the familiar 
tang of the fresh salt air blowing 
over the curling green waves, and 
to sail over these as he had once 
done in the old days when he 
had first set out to make his way 
in the world. For, like most of 
the folk of the Breton coast, 
Hans seemed to belong to the 
sea. And he had been a good 
sailor in those days. But though 
he had drifted away from that 
old life and his old friends, and 
had for so long a while gained 
his living by robbery that all 
thought of the past seemed dead 
within him, as he now looked at 
the vessels rocking on the water 


ROBBER HANS AND THE PORRINGER 


by the quay, stronger and 
stronger grew his newly awa- 
kened longing for the sea, till 
at last it swept over him like a 
fierce gust of the north wind that 
he had often seen dashing the 
white-capped waves against the 
crags of Quiberon. 

And along with this great 
longing, all the while stronger 
and stronger grew another wish; 
though, curiously enough, Hans 
himself could not for the life of 
him have told that he had it. It 
was a wish to lead an honest life 
once more; it had really always 
been down in the bottom of his 
heart, but it had gotten so cov- 
ered up and hidden by all sorts 
of robber thoughts that now it 
was like a ray of light trying to 
89 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


shine through a window all cov- 
ered with dust and cobwebs. 
And so all Hans knew about it 
was that he wanted more than 
anything else to be a sailor on 
one of those vessels. 

Hans walked along the quay 
till he came alongside the nearest 
of the schooners he had been 
watching, and then he hailed the 
captain, who was standing on the 
deck. 

“What do you want?” asked 
the captain, looking at Hans, and 
not with favor. 

“ Do you need another hand 
on your boat?” asked Hans. 

“ N o,” answered the captain 
shortly, and turned away con- 
temptuously without paying any 
further attention. 


90 


ROBBER. HANS AND THE PORRINGER 


Hans’ temper began to rise as 
he strode along toward where the 
next vessel lay. Two of her 
crew were unloading her cargo 
under the direction of the cap- 
tain. After looking at them a 
moment, “Ho!” called Hans 
abruptly to the men, “you han- 
dle that gear like the veriest 
landlubbers ! Give me a chance, 
and I’ll show you how to unload 
yonder bales in a quarter the 
time it is taking you!” 

Of course this was a very poor 
way to go about it if he wanted 
to get work on that boat; but 
Hans had little tact at best, and 
moreover he had been stung by 
the manner of the captain of the 
other vessel, and so his ill humor 
had gotten the better of him. 

91 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


At his speech, the two men 
looked up in surprise, and seeing 
Hans’ ragged figure, one of them, 
who knew him by sight, cried out 
jeeringly, “ Hold thy tongue, thou 
impudent beggar! I’ll warrant 
thou couldst lighten one of these 
bales in a twinkling couldst thou 
but get thy thieving fingers upon 
it! Begone ! ” 

Hans’ eyes blazed, and he 
strode forward with fist clenched 
to strike the man. But the latter 
was too nimble ; for the two, hav- 
ing finished their work, ran up the 
gang-plank and drew it in, so 
that Hans could not reach them, 
and they laughed scornfully as 
they taunted him from their place 
on the deck. 

Hans was very angry and his 

92 


ROBBER HANS AND THE PORRINGER 


heart full of bitterness. He 
turned on his heel and half 
started away from the quay. 
But, like many other people of 
strong will, to be crossed in what 
he wished to do only made Hans 
more unwilling to give it up. 
And so the harder it seemed to 
be to get a place on one of those 
vessels the more he wanted it. 
And turning back again, he de- 
termined to try once more. 

This time he went to the far 
end of the quay, where a fishing 
vessel was moored. The captain 
was standing on the bank near 
the side of the boat, and Hans, 
walking up to him, said : “ I am 
going to ship as sailor on this 
vessel.” 

Captain Helmgar, for this was 

93 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


his name, gave a short laugh as 
he looked at the man in front of 
him. “ Ho,” he said, “not so fast, 
my man! I am owner of this 
craft, and I choose my own crew ! 
I’ll wager thou dost not know the 
tiller from the forecastle!” 

“Just try me!” cried Hans 
eagerly. “Your craft is in fair 
order, but yonder sail was 
shrouded by a bungling hand!” 
and Hans pointed to one of the 
masts of the vessel, where the sail 
was furled in a way that his prac- 
ticed eye at once saw was clumsy. 

At this the captain opened his 
eyes and stared at Hans; for it 
was perfectly true that one of the 
crew was a lazy, ignorant fellow 
who had no fondness for the sea 
and who bungled everything he 

94 


ROBBER. HANS AND THE PORRINGER 


touched, and Captain Helmgar 
was really anxious to replace him 
with an experienced sailor. As 
he now began to question Hans, 
he soon discovered that he knew 
all about ships and shipping, as 
did almost all the men brought 
up on the coast of Brittany ; and 
then, too, Hans’ experience as 
sailor had been chiefly on fishing 
vessels. 

The captain did not like Hans’ 
raggedness and unkempt looks, 
and, though he knew nothing 
about him, was rather suspicious 
of his honesty. But then he 
needed a man, and Hans certainly 
seemed to know his trade. Cap- 
tain Helmgar, moreover, was a 
good-hearted man, and thought 
to himself, “ There is little on a 
95 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


fishing vessel he could steal, even 
if he is a thief.” The captain, 
too, rather liked Hans’ determina- 
tion to ship with him; so after 
thinking a few minutes, he said : 
“Well, my man, we leave for a 
week’s cruise to-morrow morning 
at eight o’clock, and, if you report 
on time, I will take you on trial.” 


96 


HANS TURNS SAILOR. 


CHAPTER V 



HANS TURNS SAILOR 

S H ans turned away from 
the quay his heart was 
lighter than it had been 
for many a day. He 
straightened up, and no longer 
sought all the narrower by-ways 
as he had long grown used to 
doing; but beginning to feel al- 
ready like an honest man, he 
walked boldly down the chief 
streets of the city. And though 
now and then people glanced at 
him and drew away from him, he 
97 



THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


looked straight ahead, his mind 
busy with plans for the fu- 
ture. 

He crossed the Grande Place, 
and presently, as he passed the 
doorway of the cathedral of Saint 
Sauveur, he saw an old woman 
crouching against the wall and 
begging for alms. With a sud- 
den impulse he thrust his hand 
into the pocket where lay the 
silver pieces Father Deaf-and- 
Blind had paid for the stolen cup, 
and drawing them out he dropped 
them into the old woman’s lap, 
and hastened on before she could 
speak for amazement. 

When he got back to his hut 
it was almost dusk. He made a 
fire with the last bit of wood, and 
ate the last crusts of bread he 

98 


HANS TURNS SAILOR 


could find in the cupboard ; and 
then, filled with thoughts of the 
next day, and saying over to him- 
self with a sort of pleased sur- 
prise, “ I am really going to be a 
sailor again! I am going to the 
sea!” he went to sleep and slept 
soundly until daybreak. 

As soon as Hans awakened he 
remembered what he was to do, 
and so he made himself as tidy 
as he could ; which was not much, 
to be sure, but still he looked a 
little less unkempt than usual. 
J ust before he started out, he hap- 
pened to put his hand in his 
pocket and there was still the 
porringer! He quickly drew 
away his fingers from it as if it 
burned them — but then again he 
99 . 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


put back his hand and took out 
the little dish. 

He scowled a little as he 
looked at the troublesome porrin- 
ger and remembered that after he 
had left old Father Deaf-and- 
Blind the morning before, he had 
meant to take it back as soon as 
dark fell and leave it on the door- 
step where he had found it. He 
was annoyed that his mind had 
been so full of his new plans that 
he had forgotten all about it when 
night came, and now he knew he 
would not have time to hunt up 
the little yellow house, even if he 
wanted to restore the porringer 
by daylight and run the risk of 
having to make explanation of 
his act. 

So holding it a moment uncer- 


IOO 


HANS TURNS SAILOR. 


tainly, presently he walked over 
to the empty cupboard and stood 
it up at the back of the shelf. He 
thought that when he came back 
at the end of the week, he would 
see about taking it to the little 
house. Then he pulled the door 
shut behind him, and leaving the 
hut set out for the quay. 

At the end of a week the fish- 
ing vessel was again moored in 
the old canal of Bruges. The 
catch had been good, and there 
was a great chattering among 
the fish-wives who came to buy 
the fish as they were unloaded 
from the vessel. By and by, a 
group of them caught sight of 
Hans, who was busily helping 
carry the cargo to shore. 

IOI 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


“ Look ! ” they cried, pointing 
their fingers at him, “There is 
Hans the Robber! We have 
missed him for a whole week! So 
he has turned sailor again ! Ho ! 
Ho! Hans, Hans! Didst thou 
rob the captain of that coat?” 

“ No ! ” said Captain H elmgar, 
who was close by and listening 
sharply to their wagging tongues, 
“No! Hush your clamor! I 
gave him the coat myself, and he 
is the best sailor that ever trod 
yonder deck!” and he waved his 
hand toward the vessel beside 
him. 

Now, Captain H elmgar quickly 
understood from the fish-wives’ 
talk that Hans had indeed borne 
a bad name, as he had suspected 
the day he had first talked with 
102 


HANS TURNS SAILOR 


him. But, nevertheless, he deter- 
mined to give him a fair chance 
to earn an honest living. In the 
week Hans had been on the ves- 
sel he had proven a fine sailor 
and had worked hard and faith- 
fully; and Captain Helmgar 
thought it a shame not to help 
him if he was really trying to do 
better. So, when he paid him 
his wages for the week’s work, he 
shook him heartily by the hand 
and told him that he had done 
well, and that the next day they 
would set out again and that he 
would expect Hans to go with 
them. “And you might as well 
live on the boat while you work 
for me,” added Captain Helmgar 
kindly, “ for perhaps you have no 
home of your own.” 

103 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


“ No,” said Hans, “ I have 
none ; nothing but an old tumble- 
down hut that I would be glad 
never to see again!” But just 
then he remembered the porringer, 
which had quite passed out of his 
mind in the busy week of the new 
life he had begun. He felt that he 
must get it if it was still where he 
had left it ; for though he con- 
sidered that the little dish had 
caused him no end of bother, he 
had not given up the idea of 
taking it back where it belonged. 

So turning again to Captain 
Helmgar, he said, “It is only a 
miserable place, the old hut, but 
there is something there I must 
get before I come to stay on the 
boat.” 

“Very well,” replied the cap- 

IO4 


HANS TURNS SAILOR 


tain, “ go and get whatever 
you want; but be sure and be 
back by afternoon, for there 
will be plenty of work here to 
get ready for sailing again to- 
morrow.” 

As Hans started off down the 
street he decided that this was 
as good a time as any to hunt for 
the little yellow house; for if he 
could slip away from the fishing 
vessel for a little while that eve- 
ning, as he hoped, he wanted to 
know exactly where the house 
stood, so he need waste no time 
finding it. 

So he threaded his way through 
the maze of cobble-paved streets 
as nearly as he could remember 
in the direction he had gone on 
that night before Christmas. At 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


last he turned into The Little 
Street Of The Holy Ghost, and, 
looking down it, yes, he was cer- 
tain this was the one for which 
he was searching. 

Slackening his steps, as he 
walked slowly along he kept look- 
ing out for the little house, which 
he had passed hurriedly that 
Christmas eve and without es- 
pecially noticing it; though he 
remembered that it stood on a 
corner, and he felt sure he would 
know it again. 

Before long he came to it, and, 
sure enough, he knew it at once. 
There was the wooden step on 
which the porringer had stood, 
and Karen, with her little shawl 
pinned about her shoulders, was 
sweeping it. As Hans walked 

106 


HANS TURNS SAILOR 


slowly by, suddenly he stopped 
and said to Karen, “ What is thy 
name, little girl ? ” 

Karen timidly lifted her blue 
eyes to his, and “Karen, sir,” she 
answered simply. 

“Hast thou any brothers or 
sisters?” continued Hans. 

“No, sir,” said Karen wonder- 
ingly, “ there is no one but Grand- 
mother and me. Did you want 
to see Grandmother?” 

“ No, no,” muttered Hans ha- 
stily; and then, feeling that he 
must make some excuse for his 
questions, “ I was only hunting 
where some one lives,” he added, 
and with an awkward bow to the 
little girl he passed hurriedly on ; 
though in doing so his keen eyes 
had noticed Grandmother at the 
107 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


window bending over her lace- 
pillow. 

“So,” he said to himself, “that 
is the child the porringer belongs 
to ; and her Grandmother is a lace- 
maker ! ” And again shame came 
to him because he had taken the 
gift he felt sure had been meant 
for the little blue-eyed girl. 

He went on to the old tumble- 
down hut and pushed open the 
door. No one had disturbed the 
place since he had left it ; indeed, 
it had been deserted when Hans 
had taken possession of it, and 
since then no one had dared mo- 
lest it. The hut looked very 
bare and forlorn as Hans stepped 
into it, and there was really noth- 
ing in it that he cared to take 
with him ; that is, nothing but 

108 


HANS TURNS SAILOR 


the little porringer, which still 
stood back in the dusty corner of 
the old cupboard. As he lifted 
it down and looked at it, he 
fancied that Emschen smiled up 
at him happily from between the 
rose-trees of the bowl; and he 
tucked it very carefully into the 
pocket of the decent coat Captain 
Helmgar had given him. 

Then he went back, retracing 
his steps all the way till he 
reached The Little Street Of 
The Holy Ghost. When again 
he came to the yellow house the 
door was closed ; and he had half 
a notion that he would hurriedly 
set the porringer down on the 
step, even if it was daylight. 

But as he glanced up at the 
two little windows, there were 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


Grandmother and Karen, and he 
could not do it right under their 
eyes ! 

Hans frowned ; it seemed as if 
he never could get rid of this 
last bit of stolen property. For 
though he really wanted to give 
the porringer back to Karen, he 
could not bring himself to take 
it to her and tell her he had 
stolen it; nor could he bear to 
have her see him leave it on the 
step and guess that he had been 
a thief. 

So there seemed nothing left 
for him to do but to carry it on 
to the fishing vessel and put it 
in the locker where he kept his 
few clothes, and then wait for eve- 
ning or some other chance to re- 
store it. But the chance did not 


IIO 


HANS TURNS SAILOR 


come that evening, for Captain 
Helmgar had many things for the 
sailors to do on the vessel, and so 
Hans had to put off taking home 
the porringer till some other time 
when he would return to Bruges. 

And the odd part about it all 
was that the longer Hans had 
the little porringer near him, the 
more attached to it he grew, and 
the more he came to hate the 
thought of giving it up! He kept 
it in his locker, and every day he 
looked at it until he became al- 
most superstitious about it. Some- 
times the little girl in it made him 
think of Karen, but more often 
it was Emschen, and always when 
he tried hard to do well he 
thought the face smiled at him ; 
but when sometimes at first the 


III 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


= 


work seemed hard and he would 
half think of going back to his 
old robber life, then the little girl 
in the porringer looked so sad 
and mournful that Hans always 
gave over those half formed ideas 
and kept honestly on, doing his 
work so well that Captain Helm- 
gar came more and more to trust 
and depend upon him. 


112 


AT THE RAG -MARKET 


CHAPTER VI 

AT THE RAG-MARKET 

H I LE the fishing vessel 
was going up and down 
the Flemish coast, and 
every little while coming 
back to the quay at Bruges, the 
winter was wearing away, and 
along the water-courses and open 
squares of the city the chestnut 
and willow trees were putting on 
their April greenery. 

Crocuses and hyacinths were 
blooming in many little nooks 
by the lazy canals where the 



THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


white swans and ducks sailed 
happily, guiding their downy 
flocks of young. Sweeping the 
placid mirror of the Minne-Water 
out by the ancient city gateway, 
the stately elms were hung with 
pale green tassels, and, hidden 
among these, nightingales fluted 
all night long. While in the gar- 
dens by the tall brown houses in 
the older parts of the city, cuckoos 
and starlings sang all day from 
blossoming apple and cherry 
boughs. 

Though on The Little Street 
Of The Holy Ghost the dwell- 
ings stood close to the cobble- 
stones, and so had no dooryards 
for grass or flowers, nevertheless 
through the open windows of the 
little yellow house the spring 


AT THE RAG -MARKET 


wind blew in softly, laden with 
April fragrance. But by the 
window in the living-room Grand- 
mother could not be seen bending 
over her lace-making as for so 
many years before. Instead, she 
lay propped up in her bed, too 
ill and weak to guide the bobbins 
full of delicate thread that hung 
idly from the pillow near by. 

Poor Grandmother had been 
unable to work for several weeks ; 
and, though better of her illness, 
strength came back but slowly to 
her trembling hands. Karen had 
had a sad and sorry time, too ; 
for she was only a little girl, and 
every day there was so much 
work to do. Their neighbor folk 
had been good and kind, and had 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


care of Grandmother ; but the 
little savings she had laid away 
were almost gone, and her great 
fear now was that she would be 
forced to go to one of the God’s 
Houses;, for besides those for 
children, there were many other 
almshouses in Bruges that bore 
this name. There were many of 
these because poverty lay heav- 
ily on the poorer people, and if 
they fell ill it meant bitter suf- 
fering. 

Grandmother wished passion- 
ately to be able to stay in the 
little home where she had always 
lived, and to keep Karen with 
her. 

So long as she could work at 
her lace-pillow she could manage 
this ; but now her hands were 

116 


AT THE RAG -MARKET 


idle, and Karen too young and 
her little fingers as yet untrained 
save for the simplest stitches ; and 
so the pinch of want had come 
upon them, and with all Grand- 
mother’s pride it seemed no 
longer possible to live unless help 
came in some way. 

Madame Koerner would no 
doubt have befriended them had 
she known their need. But Ma- 
dame Koerner was not then in 
Bruges. She had been called to 
the city of Ghent by the illness 
of her own mother, and, in her 
anxiety for her, she did not know 
of the sore straits to which Grand- 
mother and Karen had come. 

As Grandmother now lay in 
her bed, she was thinking hard 
of how they might get a little 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


money to keep them in food until 
she could gain enough strength 
to work again. 

Presently, “ Karen!” she called 
to the little girl who was in the 
living-room bending over her lace- 
pillow and trying hard to make 
some of the stitches she had been 
taught last. But the thread was 
so fine and it was so hard to man- 
age the bobbins exactly right that 
her forehead was all puckered and 
the tears lay very near her eyes. 

“Yes, Grandmother,” she an- 
swered, as she laid down the 
bobbins, and jumping up from 
her stool went and stood by the 
bedside. 

“Karen,” said Grandmother, in 
a weak voice, “ I have been think- 
ing that to-day is the day for the 


AT THE RAG -MARKET 


rag-market down by the Quai 
Vert, and neighbor Radenour 
told me yesterday that she had 
some extra cloth from her weav- 
ing and she means to take it there 
to sell. And, Karen,” — Grand- 
mother’s voice was very low and 
sad, but she went bravely on, — 
“canst not thou go with her and 
take the two brass candlesticks? 
It may be thou canst sell them 
for a fair price, and we are sorely 
in need of money. Frau Rade- 
nour will help thee and see that 
none cheat thee. Run now and 
ask if thou canst go with her.” 
And Grandmother shut her eyes 
and lay back on her pillow. 

Karen listened with her blue 
eyes wide open, for she had not 
known how close they were to 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


want. Grandmother had never 
told her how little she had been 
able to save ; and, anyway, Karen 
had but small idea of the value 
of money. But now she realized 
that they must be terribly poor, 
or Grandmother would never 
part with the brass candlesticks 
of which she had always been 
very proud. These were really 
beautiful in their simple but good 
design and their honest workman- 
ship ; both were ornamented with 
a pattern of beaten work, and with 
them went a tiny, pointed snuffer ; 
they had been made by hand, long 
before, and had been in Grand- 
mother’s family for many genera- 
tions. Grandmother prized the 
candlesticks very highly, and so 
did Karen, who knew how to 


120 


AT THE RAG -MARKET 


polish them till they fairly shone. 
For even among the poorer folk 
of old Bruges many things of 
household use were made of brass 
or copper, and every one kept 
these things scoured and polished 
with the greatest care. 

As Karen passed through the 
living-room on her way to ask 
F rau Radenour she looked at the 
treasured candlesticks shining 
from the dresser shelf, and the 
tears filled her eyes just as they 
did Grandmother’s, who was 
weeping quietly as she lay back 
in her bed. 

In a few minutes Karen came 
back and told Grandmother that 
Frau Radenour would gladly 
take her along to the market and 
look after her, and that she must 


121 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


be ready to start in just a little 
while. 

“ Stay close to her, Karen,” 
warned Grandmother, “ and do 
with thy wares whatever way she 
thinks best, for she is a good bar- 
gainer and will see that thou art 
dealt with fairly. Now, bring 
the candlesticks for me to see 
them once more before thou must 
take them away.” 

As Karen, lifting them from 
the dresser, brought them to her 
bed, Grandmother’s thin fingers 
caressed them lovingly; for both 
had belonged to her mother and 
her mother’s mother before her, 
and were the most treasured of 
the few possessions she had 
hoped to hand down to Karen. 
But they must have bread ; and 

123 


AT THE RAG -MARKET 


so with a sigh presently she with- 
drew her hands and folded them 
over the coverlet. 

Karen placed the candlesticks 
carefully in her blue apron, and, 
holding up its hem tightly in one 
hand, she kissed Grandmother 
and smoothed her covers, and 
then she went over to F rau Rade- 
nour’s house and together they 
set out for the rag-market. 

Bruges has always been a city 
of many kinds of markets ; and 
this one whither they were going 
was held every week or two on 
an open plot of ground on the 
banks of one of the quiet old 
canals and near the Quai Vert. It 
was called the rag-market because 
there on the grass under the 
double row of gnarled chestnut 

123 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


trees, dealers and humble folk of 
the poorer class spread out their 
wares. 

Some brought only rags; 
though oftentimes others, driven 
by want, offered for sale some- 
thing really beautiful: perhaps a 
bit of lace or a piece of old copper 
or brass handed down, as were 
Karen’s wares, from the days 
when the poorer people were less 
poor and when in the making of 
even the simplest things for use 
in their homes the workmen had 
put their loving thought and skill. 

When Karen and Frau Rade- 
nour reached the place, a number 
of people were already there 
arranging the things they had 
brought. Frau Radenour, who 
often came to the market, knew 

124 


AT THE RAG -MARKET 


almost everyone, and with a smile 
and a “ good day ! ” to those about 
her, she chose a place and spread 
out the bits of cloth she had for 
sale. “Do thou sit down here 
beside me,” she said kindly to 
Karen, “ and place thy things so,” 
and she pointed to a spot in front 
of them. 

As Karen placed her precious 
candlesticks on the ground, the 
polished brass gleamed in the 
fresh green grass like a cluster of 
yellow crocuses. Karen’s face 
looked like a little spring flower, 
too, only very pale, and her eyes 
had a pathetic droop, as she sat 
under the flickering shadows of 
the young chestnut leaves. The 
cap that covered her plaited hair 
\tas very stiff and white, and as 
125 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


she smoothed her little blue apron 
over the black dress she wore, 
she looked wonderingly around 
at the people who were beginning 
to loiter along the path between 
the trees and now and then to 
stop and price or perhaps buy 
some of the wares for sale. 

Karen had once or twice be- 
fore been to the rag-market with 
Grandmother; but that was to buy 
and not to sell, and she thought 
it a very different matter now. 

Presently one, and then another 
woman stopped and looked at the 
candlesticks in front of Karen. 
But when they asked the price 
and Frau Radenour, who took 
charge of the matter, insisted on 
ten francs, they shook their heads 
and turned away. The poor little 
126 


AT THE RAG -MARKET 


girl’s eyes filled with tears, but 
Frau Radenour, who was a 
shrewd bargainer, said : “ Cheer 
up, little one, thy wares are 
worth the price, and we will not 
give them to the first one who 
asks ! ” 

Karen, though, was quite sure 
that no one else would come; 
and while she hated the thought 
of parting with the pretty candle- 
sticks, neither did she wish to 
go back to Grandmother without 
carrying her the money which she 
knew they must need so dread- 
fully. And so, that Frau Rade- 
nour might not see her tears, she 
turned away her face. 

The sunlight glinting between 
the trees touched the quiet water 
of the canal near by and flecked 
127 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


it with silver. By the mossy 
piers of the picturesque old bridge 
that spanned it a family of black 
and white ducks were swimming 
about, every now and then dip- 
ping their broad, yellow bills into 
the water and spattering it in 
twinkling drops over their glossy 
feathers. And quite near to 
Karen a beautiful white swan 
drifted along arching her neck 
proudly and looking toward Ka- 
ren as if she expected the happy 
smile and “Good day!” with 
which the little girl always greeted 
these stately white birds she so 
admired. 

But poor Karen had no heart 
to talk to even her beloved swans ; 
yet she put up her hand and 
brushed away the tears, and tried 
128 


AT THE RAG -MARKET 


to be interested as Frau Rade- 
nour, after a little bargaining, 
sold her bits of cloth to a woman 
in a black dress with a fringed 
kerchief crossed over her shoul- 
ders. The woman was making a 
piece of rag carpet at home and 
needed a few more strips of cloth 
to finish it, and she found Frau 
Radenour’s to her liking. 

Just as the bargain was 
finished, a man came strolling 
along smoking a pipe. He 
seemed to have no special busi- 
ness there but just to smoke his 
pipe and enjoy the spring air as 
it blew softly between the chest- 
nut trees. Now and then he 
stopped and glanced at some of 
the wares spread out for sale on 
either side of the path ; but more 
129 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


often his eyes wandered down the 
length of the canal to a little gap 
between the brown roofs of the 
old houses that fringed its wind- 
ing course. For through this 
little gap one could see the tall 
masts of a cluster of schooners 
moored at a quay beyond a not 
far distant bend. 

The reason these interested the 
man more than anything else was 
because he was a sailor; and as 
his boat happened to be waiting 
for some cargo to be made ready, 
he was taking a little stroll in the 
meantime. But the reason that 
the sailor stopped still when he 
came to Frau Radenour and Ka- 
ren, and looked hard at the little 
girl, was because he happened to 
be none other than Hans. 


130 


AT THE RAG -MARKET 


Now, Hans still had the little 
porringer, and though he had been 
back in Bruges several times since 
he went to live on Captain Helm- 
gar’s boat, he had not perhaps 
taken so much pains as he might 
to restore it. He had always 
meant to take it back, but always 
there was something to do that 
seemed to interfere, and perhaps, 
too, he had been almost glad of 
one excuse or another to delay 
returning it ; for still the longer 
he had it, the more he hated to 
part with it. And, curiously 
enough, although he had stolen it, 
he somehow felt that if it had not 
been for it he would still be Rob- 
ber Hans, and he found an 
honest life very much better and 
more agreeable than he had 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


thought. And then, too, since 
he was leading a life in which he 
could respect himself once more, 
the memories which the porringer 
awakened no longer pained and 
angered him as they had done at 
first when he had tried to destroy 
it. For though he had thought 
then that it was with the porrin- 
ger, it was really with himself that 
he had been angry, because he had 
made his life so worthless that he 
did not like to compare it with 
the happier days of his childhood 
that the porringer had recalled to 
him. But now he liked to look at 
it and think of the old Quiberon 
days; and still the little pictured 
face of Emschen smiled up at 
him from its bowl and spurred 
him on to do the best he could. 



HE SAW HER SITTING THERE ON THE GRASS BESIDE 


FRAU RADENOUR 

















































































AT THE RAG- MARKET 


But though Hans still kept 
the porringer, he knew very well 
that he ought to return it to the 
little girl he had seen sweeping 
the steps of the yellow house on 
the corner; and notwithstanding 
he had delayed so long, he still 
honestly meant to try to find a 
chance to restore it to her. 

Now, as he saw her sitting 
there on the grass beside Frau 
Radenour, he knew her at once, 
though he thought her face 
looked thinner and less rosy than 
when he had seen her before. 
As he stared at Karen, presently 
Frau Radenour looked up cu- 
riously at him, and “Good day, 
Ma’m!” said Hans awkwardly, ta- 
king the pipe from his mouth. 

“ Good day ! ” replied F rau 
133 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


Radenour, and Karen looked up, 
too. But though she half remem- 
bered Hans’ face, she could not 
place him ; for it had been only 
a minute or two that he had 
stopped at the doorstep that day 
he had spoken to her, and then 
he had looked much more closely 
at her than she at him. 

“ Hast thou something to sell ? ” 
asked Hans, looking down at the 
candlesticks still nestling in the 
grass in front of the little girl. 

“Yes,” spoke up Frau Rade- 
nour, “ the price is ten francs for 
the pair, and any one can see that 
is little enough for them ! ” 

“They are good work,” said 
Hans, still awkwardly, as he 
stooped down and lifted them in 
his hands. And, indeed, Hans 
134 


AT THE RAG -MARKET 


in his robber days had taken 
enough things to be a judge of 
values. 

“Yes, sir,” ventured Karen in 
a low voice, as he admired the 
candlesticks, “ I think they are 
pretty, and we would not sell 
them only Grandmother is sick 
and we must have the money.” 

It was the first time Karen 
had spoken, and “Hush, child!” 
said Frau Radenour aside to her. 
“ Let me manage the bargain- 
ing ! ” 

But Hans had already set 
the candlesticks down, and was 
searching his pockets, his face red 
with confusion and mortification. 
He would have given anything 
to be able to buy them and at a 
much larger price than that asked, 
135 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


for he thought vaguely that he 
might thus make up to the little 
girl for having taken the porrin- 
ger which of course was worth 
only a few sous. But he did not 
possess the ten francs! Again 
he felt desperately in his pockets, 
but scarcely half that sum was all 
he could muster. 

The fact was Hans had not 
been wasting his earnings as a 
sailor, but had spent some of his 
first honest money to buy himself 
the decent clothes of which he 
was sorely in need ; and then 
afterward he had used all he 
could spare to pay some old debts 
which he was ashamed to think 
had stood so long against him. 
His wages on the fishing vessel 
were not large, and so it had 

136 


AT THE RAG -MARKET 


taken some time to do these 
things, and now barely five francs 
was all Hans possessed in the. 
world. 

As he thus stood confusedly, 
wishing with all his heart that he 
had more money to offer for the 
candlesticks, it happened that an- 
other man came along and began 
to look at them. This man was 
the owner of a little shop in the 
city and dealt in brass and copper 
wares, and he knew the rag-mar- 
ket and often picked up beautiful 
things very cheaply there; for the 
poor people who brought them 
for sale did not expect to receive 
the full value of their wares, but, 
pressed sharply by their need, had 
to be content to sell them for 

what they could. 

137 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


As the dealer now examined 
Karen’s candlesticks he quickly 
saw that they were of beautiful 
workmanship and that, as Frau 
Radenour declared, ten francs 
was little enough for them. But 
though he felt perfectly sure that 
he could sell them from his shop 
for a great deal more, he was un- 
willing to pay the ten francs un- 
til F rau Radenour had exhausted 
all her skill as a saleswoman. 
At last, slowly drawing the francs 
from his purse, he handed them 
over and carried off the candle- 
sticks; and though Frau Rade- 
nour insisted that he had bought 
them for but half their value, she 
knew it was probably the best 
they could have hoped for in the 
rag-market. 


AT THE RAG -MARKET 


While this chaffering was going 
on, Karen had sat mute and sad- 
eyed, and Hans, too, had not 
moved away, but still stood help- 
lessly, not quite knowing what to 
do. But when the dealer had 
walked off, he drew a step nearer 
to Karen, and, again turning very 
red with confusion, he extended to 
her his hand in which lay the five 
francs, and, “ Little girl,” he stam- 
mered, “ won’t you please take 
these? They are all I have.” 

At this Karen drew back tim- 
idly and looked up at him in be- 
wilderment, while F rau Radenour 
stared with surprise. In a mo- 
ment, however, the latter recov- 
ered herself and said, with a 
touch of sharpness in her voice, 
“ Many thanks, sir, but keep your 
139 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


money ; the child is no beggar ! ” 
Indeed, with the sturdy pride of 
the hard-working poor, Frau 
Radenour resented Hans’ well- 
meant offer, and she knew, too, 
that Karen’s Grandmother would 
be greatly displeased had she al- 
lowed Karen to accept the charity 
of a stranger. 

But as she took the little girl’s 
hand and they both rose to their 
feet and started off for home, she 
wondered over and over why the 
strange sailor had stared so at 
Karen and had wanted to give 
her all his money. 

As they walked away, Hans, 
on his part, looked gloomily after 
them as he reluctantly replaced 
the five francs in his pocket. 

He was deeply disappointed 
140 


AT THE RAG- MARKET 


that he had not been able to 
give them to Karen, for he now 
realized that she and her Grand- 
mother must be much poorer than 
he had supposed. The little yellow 
house looked comfortable, and bet- 
ter than those of most of the lace- 
makers, and Hans had not before 
thought that the two who lived 
there had found life a hard struggle. 

As this began to sink into his 
mind he began to wake up. In- 
deed, Hans’ better nature had 
been asleep so long while he was 
leading his evil life that it took 
quite a while for it to waken 
entirely ; though every day for 
those three months past he had 
been rousing up more and more. 

As he now turned again and 
strode along the path by the old 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 

canal, “ What if it were Ems- 
chen?” he kept saying to himself. 
“She isn’t even so big as Emschen 
was, and the Grandmother is sick 
and they have no one to work for 
them ! ” And then another idea 
came into the mind of Hans, and 
it interested him so that he for- 
got to finish smoking his pipe and 
he almost ran into a great, shaggy 
dog harnessed to a little cart full 
of brass milk cans. 

“ Look out ! ” cried the woman 
trudging along beside the cart. 
“ Thou art a great clumsy fellow !” 

And Hans, muttering a shame- 
faced apology, turned up a narrow 
street and made his way back to 
the quay where the fishing vessels 
were moored. 


142 


GRANDMOTHER AND KAREN 


CHAPTER VII 

GRANDMOTHER AND KAREN 

HEN Frau Radenour 
and Karen came back 
to The Little Street Of 
The Holy Ghost and 
drew near the corner where Ka- 
ren lived, Frau Radenour, who 
had carefully carried the money 
for the candlesticks, now gave it 
to the little girl and with a cheery 
good-by went on to her own home. 

Karen hurried up the steps and 
pushing open the door went into 
the room where Grandmother lay 
143 



THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


in her bed. Bending over her 
patient old face, she kissed her, 
and then laying the ten francs 
on the counterpane said, “ See, 
Grandmother ! F rau Radenour 
says this will keep us in bread 
for quite a long time ! And you 
know we did not need the candle- 
sticks.” 

Then Grandmother stroked 
Karen’s hand and said: “Thou 
art a dear child, Karen, and thou 
hast done well. Grandmother is 
better now and we will get 
along.” 

She told Karen to go to a little 
shop not far away and buy them 
some food, of which they had 
but a scanty supply. 

After their humble little dinner 
Grandmother felt so much better 


144 


GRANDMOTHER AND KAREN 


that she was able, with Karen’s 
help, to put on her dress and sit 
by the open window for a while. 

In a few days she had im- 
proved so much that she took up 
the lace-pillow again, and began 
to work. Day by day, beneath 
her deft fingers, the delicate 
threads grew into white flowers 
and frosty tissues ; and Karen, 
sitting by her side, learned to 
make a flower shaped like a little 
hyacinth bell, and Grandmother 
smiled proudly and said she 
would be a fine lace-maker. And 
then Karen tried harder than ever 
to learn how to use the tiny bob- 
bins. 

Sometimes, through the pleas- 
ant spring days, they sat on the 
doorstep and worked. There was 

I4S 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


a convent not far away where the 
nuns taught the children of the 
poorer folk of Bruges. And often, 
as Grandmother looked at Karen 
working so hard over her little 
black pillow, she grieved much 
that the little girl could not go to 
this school at least a part of every 
day, for she wanted her to have 
a chance to learn something; but 
she could not spare her. For 
though Grandmother was better, 
she was not strong and could not 
work so steadily as she had done 
before. Karen had to help as 
much as she could about the 
house and in every way relieve 
her, which kept the little girl 
busy. 

Early in the summer Madame 
Koerner, who had returned from 

I46 


GRANDMOTHER AND KAREN 


Ghent, had Karen come every 
afternoon to play with and look 
after her little boy, and, in this 
way, she earned a little money, 
till Madame Koerner was called 
away again. 

But yet, in spite of all their 
efforts, Grandmother and Karen 
had hard work to keep themselves 
from want. And from time to 
time Grandmother’s tired hands 
would tremble so she would have 
to stop work for a little while. 
And then Karen would have to 
go again to the rag-market with 
Frau Radenour and carry with 
her some one of their few posses- 
sions. In this way they parted 
with the little .brass coffee-pot 
which, next to the candlesticks, 
had been the pride of Grand- 
147 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


mother’s heart; and then, later 
on, went a pitcher, and even Ka- 
ren’s pewter mug, and one or two 
pieces of the precious linen which 
Grandmother had tried to store 
up for the little girl against the 
time when she grew up and would 
perhaps have a home of her own. 

So, gradually, the little house 
grew more and more bare within, 
though Grandmother and Karen 
still bravely struggled on, and in 
one way and another managed to 
keep from the almshouse. 

But though the little girl had 
to work so hard, she had her sim- 
ple little pleasures, too. Some- 
times Grandmother finished her 
lace for some one of the ladies 
who had seen her work at Ma- 
dame Koerner’s and who lived in 

148 


GRANDMOTHER AND KAREN 


that part of the city. And then 
it was one of Karen’s chief de- 
lights to take the work home ; for 
she loved to walk through their 
gardens where old-fashioned roses 
and poppies and blue corn-flow- 
ers bloomed, and snapdragons and 
larkspurs and many other gay 
blossoms splashed their bright 
color along the box-bordered 
paths, for Bruges has always been 
famous for her beautiful flowers. 
And often when the little girl 
came home it would be with her 
hands full of posies that had been 
given her, and these brightened 
up the bare little house and helped 
make them forget the many things 
they had been obliged to part 
with. Though not all the flow- 
ers stayed within, for Karen al- 

149 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


ways took pains to pick out the 
very prettiest one, and then with 
this in her hand she would lean 
from the sill of the window near- 
est the little shrine at the corner 
of the house, and there she would 
tuck the flower within the little 
hand of the Christ-child’s image. 
For it did not seem to her fitting 
that the house should be deco- 
rated within and the shrine left 
bare. 

Another thing Karen loved to 
do was to go with Grandmother, 
sometimes on Sunday afternoons 
when they had a holiday, out to the 
pretty little lake called the Minne- 
Water, which lay just within the 
old city walls. Here, where the 
great elm trees cast their dappled 
shadows, many white swans were 



MANY WHITE SWANS WERE ALWAYS TO BE FOUND 


FLOATING ABOUT 





GRANDMOTHER AND KAREN 


always to be found floating about. 
Karen always saved part of her 
bread on Sundays that she might 
have the delight of feeding the 
lovely great birds, who would 
swim up as she leaned over the 
edge of the water and eat the 
morsels from her rosy palm. 

Indeed, it takes but little to 
give pleasure when one works 
hard all week long. And as Ka- 
ren bent over her lace-pillow day 
after day, she would dream about 
the gardens and the swans on the 
Minne-Water till sometimes she 
would drop her bobbins and 
tangle her thread, and Grand- 
mother would have to bid her be 
more careful ; and then she would 
set to work again and her little 
fingers would fairly fly. 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


Day by day, up in the wonder- 
ful belfry, the silvery chimes rang 
out the hours, till the summer had 
passed away and the autumn came. 
Soon the starlings and cuckoos 
all flew away to warmer lands, and 
in the open spaces of the city the 
green leaves of the chestnut trees 
curled up and fluttered down to 
the ground, and the great willows, 
that here and there overhung the 
old canals, slowly dropped their 
golden foliage to float away on 
the silvery water below. 

I n the little yellow house Grand- 
mother and Karen now had to 
burn some of their precious hoard 
of wood even after their bit of 
cooking on the hearth was done; 
and Karen could no longer put a 
flower for the Christ-child up in 
152 


GRANDMOTHER AND KAREN 


the little shrine at the corner of 
the house. 

Indeed, as winter drew on, 
bringing with it thoughts of the 
Christmas time, Karen said to 
herself sadly that this year she 
would have no money to spend 
for the little gifts she so loved to 
make. She remembered how 
pleased she had been the Christ- 
mas before to select and buy the 
green jug for Grandmother and 
the pretty porringer for the Christ- 
child. Grandmother had liked 
the jug as well as Karen had 
hoped she would ; and she hoped, 
too, that the Christ-child had 
been pleased with the porringer 
— she was sure he had found it 
on the doorstep, because it was 
gone the next morning. 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


She wished she might buy 
presents for both of them again, 
but she knew that even if some 
of the ladies Grandmother worked 
for should give her a silver piece 
as had Madame Koerner the 
year before, she would have to 
spend it for the food they must 
have and for which it seemed so 
hard to get the money. 

There was one thing though 
that, poor as they were, Grand- 
mother felt they must provide 
against the Christmas time ; they 
must have their wax candles to 
take to the cathedral even if they 
had to do without light them- 
selves. 

So when the time wore on and 
the day before Christmas came, 
just as they had done as far back 

I 54 


GRANDMOTHER AND KAREN 


as Karen could remember, they 
set out for the ancient cathedral, 
each carrying a white taper to be 
blessed and lighted and add its 
tiny golden flame to the hundreds 
twinkling through the dim, per- 
fumed air. 

When the vesper service was 
over, and again they walked slowly 
back to the little house, its steep 
roof was powdered over with light 
snowflakes that were beginning 
to pile up in soft drifts on the 
points of the gable and to flutter 
down to the street below. 

As Karen looked up at the 
little shrine hung with its wintry 
fringe of twinkling icicles, and 
at the image of the Christ-child 
within, she wondered if the real 
Christ-child would bring her 
155 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


something again at midnight. 
And she wondered, too, for the 
thousandth time, how he could 
bring gifts to so many children 
in a single night, and how it was 
that he did not grow veiy tired 
and cold, as she was then, and 
she had been no farther than the 
cathedral. 

But Grandmother said he did 
not feel the cold nor grow tired 
like other children so long as 
they kept him warm with their 
love ; but that if he found a child 
whose heart was cold and who 
did not try to obey him, then he 
shivered in the snow and his little 
feet grew so weary ! Karen could 
not see how any child could help 
loving him when he was so good 
to them all ; and she wished again 


GRANDMOTHER AND KAREN 


that she had some little gift to 
show him that she thought about 
him, and cared for him. 

She gave a little sigh as they 
went in, but soon she was busy 
helping set out their supper, and 
then when they had finished, and 
put the dishes back on the dresser, 
she and Grandmother sat by the 
hearth in the flickering light of 
the fire. 

And as they looked into the 
embers, they both saw visions and 
dreamed dreams. Grandmother’s 
dreams were of long ago, when 
Karen’s mother was a little girl 
like Karen herself ; while Karen 
dreamed of the time when she 
would be grown up and able 
to do wonderful things for Grand- 
mother. 


iS7 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


CHAPTER VIII 

CHRISTMAS EVE AGAIN 

S Grandmother and Ka- 
ren still sat in the fire- 
light, dreaming their 
dreams and thinking of 
many things, not far away, along 
The Little Street Of The Holy 
Ghost, a man was walking rapidly. 

Of course there was nothing 
odd about that, but it was curious 
that this man was the very same 
one who had hurried down that 
very street exactly a year before 
— and yet any one who had seen 
158 



CHRISTMAS EVE AGAIN 


him then would never have be- 
lieved that it could possibly be 
the same. 

For instead of Hans the Rob- 
ber, unkempt and ragged, walk- 
ing stealthily and keeping a con- 
stant sharp lookout lest he be 
surprised in some of his evil do- 
ing, this man Hans was decently 
clad and bore himself fearlessly. 
He carried something in his 
hands, and he seemed to be look- 
ing for some place. 

Presently he came to the cor- 
ner where stood the little yellow 
house, and there he paused for a 
moment and a look of disappoint- 
ment came into his face ; for 
there seemed to be no light in 
the house and it looked as if no 
one were home. But as Hans 


I S9 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


came opposite to one of the little 
windows, he glanced in and could 
see Grandmother and Karen sit- 
ting hand in hand by the hearth. 
Then he looked carefully about 
him and noticed across the street 
a narrow passageway that lay in 
the shadow between two rambling 
old houses, and he gave a little 
smile of satisfaction. 

The next thing he did was to 
place the objects he had been 
carrying in his hands in a row 
on the doorstep, close in front of 
the door, so that any one opening 
it could not help but see them — 
that is, if the room within had 
been light, for otherwise the deep, 
old-fashioned doorway was quite 
in shadow. There was no street 
lamp near, and, though the snow 

160 


CHRISTMAS EVE AGAIN 


had ceased, the night was moon- 
less and the stars partly hidden 
by clouds. A few lights shone 
faintly from some of the houses 
opposite, but these did not help 
any, as they did not touch the 
doorstep; and as Hans realized 
that the things he had placed 
there could thus scarcely be seen, 
he looked troubled for a moment, 
but suddenly he broke into a 
low laugh as he said to himself: 
“ Lucky I thought to put in can- 
dles !” 

And then, fumbling in his 
pockets, at last he found a bit of 
paper which had been wrapped 
around his tobacco ; for his pipe 
was the one indulgence that Hans 
allowed himself, and this he sel- 
dom left behind if he could help 

161 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


it. Having found the bit of pa- 
per, he hastily twisted it into a 
tiny taper, and then he looked up 
and down the street to be sure it 
was quite deserted, for he wanted 
to have things to himself for a 
few minutes. 

There was no one in sight, and 
he could hear no footfalls ; so 
quickly thrusting the taper into 
the bowl of his pipe, he held his 
hand around it and blew softly 
on the glowing coals till in a mo- 
ment the taper caught fire. Then, 
instantly, he stooped and laid it 
to the tips of two tall, shimmer- 
ing white objects in the row he 
had set on the step, and which 
proved to be candles held in a 
pair of brass candlesticks. Hans 
had little trouble in lighting them, 

l62 


CHRISTMAS EVE AGAIN 


for the air was perfectly still and 
the space in front of the door 
deep enough to shelter the can- 
dles well. When the tiny golden 
flames sprang up, they showed 
that between them on the step 
was what seemed to be a little 
bowl with blue handles, only in- 
stead of being full of sweet- 
meats, as one might perhaps ex- 
pect on Christmas eve, it was 
filled with something that glis- 
tened with a silvery light. 

But H ans did not stop to look 
at these things, for the moment 
the candles began to burn he gave 
a knock on the door, and then, 
quick as a flash, he darted across 
the narrow street, and drew back 
in the dark shadow of the pas- 
sageway he had noticed. For, 

163 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


while he did not wish to be seen, 
he wanted to watch and be sure 
that the things he had brought 
were safely received and not sto- 
len by some night prowler such as 
he himself had been a year before. 

Hans had scarcely hidden him- 
self when he heard Karen tug- 
ging to unbar the door; and, in 
another moment, as she pulled it 
open, he saw her stand perfectly 
still in the golden candlelight, 
clasping her hands in utter amaze- 
ment, while the startled wonder 
grew in her blue eyes as she stared 
down at the things at her feet. 

Then presently, “Grandmother! 
Grandmother ! ” she cried excitedly 
in a high, sweet voice, “come 
quickly and see what the Christ- 
child has brought ! ” 

164 


CHRISTMAS EVE AGAIN 


Hans could see Grandmother 
hurry to Karen as the little girl 
knelt on the floor and lifting up 
the lighted candles exclaimed, 
“Look, Grandmother! Here are 
Christmas candles in our very 
own brass candlesticks ! ” 

And then as Grandmother, 
speechless with amazement, took 
the candles from her and Karen 
lifted up the dish that had stood 
between them, “ Why — why, it 
is full of silver money ! ” she 
cried in bewilderment; and then, 
as she looked at the blue handles 
and the stripe of color around its 
edge, she exclaimed, “And oh, 
Grandmother, I do believe this 
is the very porringer I gave the 
Christ-child last Christmas ! ” 

She rose to her feet and carried 
165 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


the porringer over to the table 
where Grandmother had already 
set the candles, and Hans heard 
no more. 

Indeed, at that moment Hans 
was standing up very straight 
with a startled look growing on 
his own face, and with Karen’s 
words still ringing in his ears. 

“ What ? ” he repeated to him- 
self. “ The very porringer she 
gave the Christ-child?" and he 
began to think very hard. 

In a moment it all straightened 
itself out in his mind. Hans 
drew a deep breath, and then he 
said to himself slowly: “So that 
was why it was outside on the 
doorstep! And it was no gift 
some one had brought her — but 
a present from her to the Christ - 

166 


CHRISTMAS EVE AGAIN 


child! — And — and — / took 
it ! ” And Hans gasped and 
turned pale ; for even in his worst 
robber days he would as soon 
have thought of stealing some- 
thing from the cathedral as the 
Christ-child’s porringer, had he 
known what it was. 

“And to think,” he went on to 
himself, with a horrified look in 
his face, “that I tried to break 
it, and to sell it at the thieves 
market , and then kept it all this 
while — and what if I had not 
brought it back!" Here Hans 
fairly shivered with fear; for he 
felt that he had been guilty of a 
particularly dreadful sin when he 
took that little porringer, and he 
began to wonder what punish- 
ment he would receive for it. 

167 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


But all at once he heard Ka- 
ren’s happy laughter ring out 
from the little house, for in their 
excitement the door still stood 
partly open. And then a ray of 
light from a lamp in one of the 
brown houses . beside him shone 
out through a window, and, cross- 
ing the narrow street, touched the 
front of the little yellow house, 
and wavered, and presently flitted 
for a moment into the little shrine 
up in the corner; and, as Hans 
looked, it beamed over the face 
of the Christ-child, who seemed 
to be gazing down right into the 
eyes of Hans and smiling happily. 
And at that moment, Hans could 
not have told why, but all his fear 
vanished and he began to smile 
happily himself. 


CHRISTMAS EVE AGAIN 


As he came from his hiding- 
place and started off briskly down 
the street, and up in the beautiful 
belfry the chimes played sweetly 
through the frosty air, he found 
himself whistling softly a little 
tune keeping time with the bells ; 
and he knew his heart had not 
been so light since he was a little 
boy in Quiberon. 


169 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


CHAPTER IX 

KAREN PERPLEXED 

HILE Hans went thus 
whistling happily down 
the street, Grandmother 
and Karen were still 
breathless with excitement over 
the good fortune that had come 
to them 

With trembling hands Grand- 
mother had emptied the contents 
of the porringer on the table, and 
as she looked at the little pile of 
shining silver coins that had filled 
it she knew it was enough to keep 

170 



KAREN PERPLEXED 


them for months — yes, with their 
simple wants, they might live on it 
for a year ! And already she felt 
stronger and better able to work 
since the fear of the alms-house 
was thus gone — at least for a 
long while. 

But where had the money come 
from ? She stood dazed before 
it, so bewildered trying to account 
for it that presently Karen asked 
her in surprise, “ Why, Grand- 
mother, wasn’t it the Christ-child 
who brought everything ? ” And 
then she answered slowly and 
softly, with awe and wonder quiv- 
ering through her voice, “Yes, 
little one, it must have been none 
other than the Christ-child ! ” 

And, of course, it was; and 
that he had chosen Hans to be 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


his messenger was quite his own 
affair. If the little silver coins 
could have spoken, they might 
have told Grandmother and Ka- 
ren how Hans had saved them 
one by one. Indeed, it was less 
than a week after he had seen 
Karen selling the candlesticks in 
the rag-market that he had been 
offered a place as sailor on a large 
vessel about to start on a voyage 
to far-away China ; and Captain 
Helmgar, though sorry to part 
with him, had been glad of his 
good luck, for Hans was really a 
fine sailor and he could earn bet- 
ter wages on the larger vessel. 
And so it was that the first silver 
pieces found themselves put into 
a little bag, and every month 
more and more coming to keep 
172 


KAREN PERPLEXED 


them company. They might 
have told, too, how on ship-board 
Hans was called a miser, because 
when the vessel anchored at 
strange cities he spent nothing for 
amusements and the things which 
sailors usually like to do when on 
land; and how Haris, though he 
hated to be thought stingy, had 
yet smiled to himself the larger 
his hoard grew ; for he knew very 
well that he was really no miser 
and that he had his own reasons 
for saving the silver pieces. 

And then, if the candlesticks 
could have talked, they might have 
taken up the story and told how, 
when a certain large vessel from 
China had moored at Ostend the 
week before, a sailor named Hans 
had come back to Bruges and 
173 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


had inquired if they were still in 
the shop of the dealer he had 
seen buying them in the rag-mar- 
ket. And how he had spent just 
enough from his bag-full of silver 
to buy them and take them away 
from the shelf where they had 
stood so long because the dealer, 
a grasping man, had set so 
high a price that no one would 
buy; and so at last when Hans 
offered him a fair sum he was 
glad enough to sell them. And 
then they could have told how he 
had gone to the Christmas mar- 
ket in the Grande Place and 
bought the two white candles. 

And, last of all, the little por- 
ringer might have finished the 
tale by saying: “I was really the 
one, you know, that started it all ; 

174 


KAREN PERPLEXED 


for Hans used often to look at 
me, and my little girl with the 
rose in her hand — he called her 
Emschen — used to smile at him, 
and always reminded him of Ka- 
ren and how Karen needed some 
one to help her, and how I really 
belonged to her, — for he did not 
know then that she had bought 
me for the Christ-child. At any 
rate, he kept saving the silver 
coins just so he could fill my 
bowl with them and bring me 
back to Karen, and so here I 
am ! ” 

But though, if they could have 
spoken, they might have told all 
these things to Grandmother and 
Karen, the Christmas candles 
contented themselves with filling 
their little flames with golden 
i7S 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


light, and the candlesticks just 
shone and twinkled, and the sil- 
ver coins gleamed softly, and the 
little girl in the porringer seemed 
fairly to laugh with glee as Ka- 
ren looked into her face. 

As for Karen, she was so de- 
lighted with it all that she danced 
about the room like a little mad- 
cap sprite. But though her heart 
was brimming over with happi- 
ness, there was one thing that 
perplexed her: while she knew 
perfectly well that their good for- 
tune had come from the Christ- 
child, she could not understand 
why he had brought back the 
porringer. With the other things 
it was different, for, of course, he 
knew how they had hated to part 
with the candlesticks and how 

176 


KAREN PERPLEXED 


much they needed the money ; 
but the porringer had been meant 
all the while for him, and so why 
had he brought it back ? 

Grandmother, who had never 
seen it before, listened in bewil- 
derment as Karen, standing beside 
the table, now told her about buy- 
ing it for the Christ-child and 
leaving it on the doorstep the 
year before ; and she scarcely 
knew what to say when, with a 
troubled look, the little girl asked : 
“ Do you think he did not like it, 
Grandmother?” 

Grandmother was silent a mo- 
ment, and then, “ No, child,” she 
answered, “else why would he 
have filled it with silver and stood 
it between the lighted candles? 
No, he must have had some rea- 
177 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


son we do not understand, but I 
feel sure he was pleased with it.” 

Karen thought very hard for a 
few minutes, and at last she said : 
“ I think he must have brought 
it back because he knew we had 
to sell my pewter mug, and that 
I have only the cup with the 
broken handle for my bread and 
milk.” 

Karen was very well satisfied 
with this explanation, but some- 
how she felt that having meant it 
as a present for the Christ-child 
she did not want to take the por- 
ringer back; and so she hardly 
knew what to do with it. But 
in a moment she looked up with 
a happy smile, and “ Oh, Grand- 
mother,” she exclaimed, “ I have 
thought what to do with it ! I 

178 


KAREN PERPLEXED 


will put it up in the little shrine, 
so if he wants it again he can find 
it ! ” 

Grandmother thought that 
would be a very nice thing to 
do with the porringer ; and as the 
Christmas candles slowly burned 
away, they sat there talking over 
the wonderful thing that had hap- 
pened to them, till it seemed like 
some marvellous dream, and they 
would have to rub their eyes and 
look again and again at the little 
porringer, and the silver coins, 
and the white candles tipped with 
golden flame, to be quite sure 
that it was all really true. 


179 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


CHAPTER X 

THE PORRINGER FINDS A RESTING- 
PLACE 

ND if Grandmother and 
Karen were radiant with 
happiness that Christ- 
mas eve, not less so was 
Hans the sailor. And on Christ- 
mas morning, when all the bells 
of Bruges pealed out their glad 
carillons, instead of filling his 
heart with bitterness as they had 
done a year before when he sat 
by his desolate hearth in the for- 
saken hut, now they sounded 
sweet and joyous in his ears, and 

180 



THE PORRINGER’S RESTING-PLACE 


he thought the world a fine and 
pleasant place to live in after all. 

And above all he was glad 
and thankful that the porringer 
was safely back. But although 
he had restored it to Karen, he 
had become so interested in her 
that he did not mean to lose sight 
of her ; nor did he. 

He continued to be a sailor on 
the large ship, and voyaged to 
and fro over the sea, but when- 
ever he was on shore he always 
looked up the little yellow house 
and tried to learn how life fared 
with Grandmother and Karen. 
Before long he found means to be- 
come acquainted with them, and 
in many ways, often unknown to 
themselves, he befriended them. 
But as time went on, he wanted 

181 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


to do more. To be sure, the sil- 
ver coins he had put in the por- 
ringer had brought to the two 
warmth and light and food and 
comfort, such as they had not 
known for many a month; and 
Grandmother had still been able 
to lay aside quite a sum of money 
against a rainy day ; and the 
knowledge that they had this 
nest-egg to fall back on if either 
fell ill again brought relief and 
peace of mind that only those 
who have struggled for their 
bread can fully know. And it 
was with a lighter heart than she 
had had for years that Grand- 
mother still kept on with her lace- 
making; and day by day, sitting 
beside her, still Karen tried her 
best to master the beautiful art. 

182 


THE PORRINGER’S RESTING-PLACE 


But whenever Sailor Hans 
came to see them it distressed 
him to find them toiling over the 
little black pillows, and to feel 
that he himself had no one to do 
for and yet was so much better 
able to work than they. For 
during those months that Hans 
had saved up the silver coins for 
the porringer he had made a dis- 
covery, and that was that it was 
very much pleasanter and happier 
to have some object in life and 
some one to work for. 

But whenever he strove to help 
them, Grandmother’s pride for- 
bade, for, of course, she knew no 
reason why he should do so. So 
at last one day Hans quietly told 
her the story of his life ; and, in 
so doing, to the surprise of both 
183 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


of them, they discovered that 
Grandmother had known and 
loved his own mother in their 
girlhood days in Bruges. 

When Hans had finished, he 
begged Grandmother for the sake 
of this friendship, and most of all 
because of what Karen had un- 
wittingly done for Hans himself, 
that she would let him care for 
them as if she were his own 
mother and Karen his own little 
long-lost sister Emschen; and he 
begged so earnestly that Grand- 
mother, with all her pride, could 
no longer refuse, and when she 
gave her consent nothing had 
ever made Hans more proud and 
happy. 

From his monthly earnings he 
began regularly to set aside a cer- 

184 


THE PORRINGER’S RESTING-PLACE 


tain sum to go to the little yellow 
house. Often, too, from his voy- 
ages he brought back some foreign 
gift for Grandmother or pretty 
trinket for Karen; and once, oddly 
enough, it was a little string of 
coral beads, so much prettier than 
the blue ones she had so longed 
for that day she bought the por- 
ringer in the Christmas market 
that she laughed with delight, and 
flinging her arms around his 
neck, she kissed Hans and de- 
clared he was the best friend she 
had! 

Sometimes when he was on 
shore in summer, he would come 
up to the little yellow house and 
Grandmother would sit in the open 
doorway with her lace-pillow in 
her lap — for he could not per- 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


suade her to give up her work 
entirely — while Karen and he 
sat on the doorstep, the little girl 
industriously working, too. And 
then Hans, soberly smoking his 
pipe, would tell Karen every little 
while that she must not hurt her 
eyes, as she must save them for 
the time when she went to 
school. For one of the first 
things that Hans had seen to 
was to arrange for Karen to go 
to the convent school where 
Grandmother had wished to send 
her. And then Karen would 
laugh and say: “ I will just finish 
this one lace flower, Sailor Hans, 
and then I will stop.” 

And always from the little 
shrine up in the corner of the 
house the Christ-child nestling 

186 


THE PORRINGER’S RESTING-PLACE 


on his mother’s breast seemed to 
smile down at them with a wise 
look in his baby eyes, while down 
at the edge of Mother Mary’s blue 
robe gleamed the blue handles of 
the little porringer. 

Sometimes, when Karen had a 
flower, she filled the porringer 
with fresh water and placed the 
flower within it. And one day 
the pigeons found it out, and, flut- 
tering down from the steep roofs 
near by, came to drink from it. 
Karen, seeing this with delight, 
always after took pains every day 
to fill it freshly from the wonderful 
dragon pump, so that the pigeons 
might not be disappointed. And 
it was a pretty sight to see them 
one at a time poising at the 
edge of the shrine and bending 
187 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


their glossy necks to dip up the 
water. 

When winter came and the 
icicles hung their rainbow fringe 
from the carved canopy above, 
and the white hoar-frost wreathed 
the little bowl and trailed from 
the blue handles like garlands of 
fairy flowers, then Karen filled 
it every day with crumbs. For 
Sailor Hans, for some reason she 
never knew, always took a great 
interest in the porringer, and al- 
ways left a little piece of silver 
to supply it ; and whenever Christ- 
mas time came he insisted that 
it must be kept heaped with bar- 
ley, so that the birds might have 
a holiday feast. 

And by and by, when Grand- 
mother had come to take life 

188 


THE PORRINGER’S RESTING-PLACE 


more easily and sometimes folded 
the patient hands that had 
wrought so many exquisite things, 
when Karen had grown a tall 
girl, sweet and helpful, still filling 
the little house with happy laugh- 
ter and with the dreams in her 
blue eyes growing deeper and 
deeper, when their staunch friend 
Hans was no longer sailor but 
grey-haired Captain Hans, hon- 
ored and respected by all who 
knew him, still the little porrin- 
ger stood in the shrine. And 
through summers and winters the 
birds ate and drank from it, and 
the Christ-child seemed quite con- 
tent that it should stay there. 

This was all many years ago ; 
but unless he has taken it away, 
no doubt it is still standing in the 

189 


THE CHRISTMAS PORRINGER 


spot chosen by Karen, close by 
the feet of Mother Mary and 
watched over by the Holy Babe 
she clasps so lovingly to her 
heart. 


THE END 


190 


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such an appealing book for girls.” — Detroit Free Press. 

ALMA’S SOPHOMORE YEAR 

“ It cannot fail to appeal to the lovers of good things 
in girls’ books.” — Boston Herald. 

“ It is a wholesome story as well as a most entertaining 
one, and is a valuable addition to the literature for girls.” 
— The Gateway Gazette, Beaumont, Cal. 

ALMA’S JUNIOR YEAR 

“ The diverse characters in the boarding-school are 
strongly drawn, the incidents are well developed and the 
action is never dull.” — The Boston Herald. 


THE GIRLS OF 
FRIENDLY TERRACE SERIES 

By Harriet Lummis Smith 
Each large 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated, 
per volume $1.50 

THE GIRLS OF FRIENDLY TERRACE 

“ A book sure to please girl readers, for the author seems 
to understand perfectly the girl character.” — Boston 
Globe. 

PEGGY RAYMOND’S VACATION 

“ It is a clean, wholesome, hearty story, well told and 
full of incident. It is not an impossible creation, nor an 
improbable one. Indeed, it is all very lifelike, and carries 
one through experiences that hearten and brighten the 
day.” — Utica, N. Y., Observer. 

A— 3 


THE PAGE COMPANY’S 


FAMOUS LEADERS SERIES 

By Charles H. L. Johnston 
Each large 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated, per 
volume $1.50 

FAMOUS CAVALRY LEADERS 

“ More of such books should be written, books that 
acquaint young readers with historical personages in a 
pleasant, informal way.” — New York Sun. 

" It is a book that will stir the heart of every boy and 
will prove interesting as well to the adults.” — Lawrence 
Daily World. 

FAMOUS INDIAN CHIEFS 

“ Mr. Johnston has done faithful work in this volume, 
and his relation of battles, sieges and struggles of these 
famous Indians with the whites for the possession of 
America is a worthy addition to United States History.” 
— New York Marine Journal. 

FAMOUS SCOUTS 

“ It is the kind of a book that will have a great fascina- 
tion for boys and young men, and while it entertains them 
it will also present valuable information in regard to 
those who have left their impress upon the history of the 
country.” — The New London Day. 

FAMOUS PRIVATEERSMEN AND ADVEN- 
TURERS OF THE SEA 

“ The tales are more than merely interesting; they are 
entrancing, stirring the blood with thrilling force and 
bringing new zest to the never-ending interest in the 
dramas of the sea.” — The Pittsburgh Post. 

FAMOUS FRONTIERSMEN AND HEROES 
OF THE BORDER 

This book is devoted to a description of the adventur- 
ous lives and stirring experiences of many pioneer heroes 
who were prominently identified with the opening of the 
Great West. 

“ The accounts are not only authentic, but distinctly 
readable, making a book of wide appeal to all who love 
the history of actual adventure.” — Cleveland Leader. 
A— 4 


BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


THE DOCTOR’S LITTLE GIRL 
SERIES 

By Marion Ames Taggart 
Each large 12mo, cloth decorative , illustrated , per 
volume $1.50 

THE DOCTOR’S LITTLE GIRL 

“ A charming story of the ups and downs of the life of a 
dear little maid.” — The Churchman . 

SWEET NANCY: The Further Adventures of 
the Doctor’s Little Girl. 

“ Just the sort of book to amuse, while its influence 
cannot but be elevating.” — New York Sun . 

NANCY, THE DOCTOR’S LITTLE PARTNER 

“ The story is sweet and fascinating, such as many girls 
of wholesome tastes will enjoy.” — Springfield Union. 

NANCY PORTER’S OPPORTUNITY 

“ Nancy shows throughout that she is a splendid young 
woman, with plenty of pluck and sufficient tact to win 
many a battle.” — Boston Globe. 


THE SUNBRIDGE GIRLS AT SIX STAR 
RANCH 

By Eleanor Stuart. 

12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated . . . $1.50 

“It is a wholesome tale about healthy, lovable girls.” 
— Scranton Times. 

THE FIDDLING GIRL 

By Daisy Rhodes Campbell. 

12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated . . . $1.25 

A charming story of how a young girl realizes her am- 
bitions and becomes an accomplished violinist. 


THE ISLAND OF MAKE BELIEVE 

By Blanche E. Wade. 

12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated . . . $1 .50 

This is a delightful story of the different ways in which 
little people can entertain themselves. 

A— 5 


THE PAGE COMPANY’S 


THE BOYS’ STORY OF THE 
RAILROAD SERIES 

By Burton E. Stevenson 

Each large 12mo y cloth decorative , illustrated, per 
volume $1.50 

THE YOUNG SECTION - HAND ; Or, The Ad- 
ventures of Allan West. 

“ A thrilling story, well told, clean and bright. The 
whole range of section railroading is covered in the story, 
and it contains information as well as interest.” — Chicago 
Post . 

THE YOUNG TRAIN DISPATCHER 

“ A vivacious account of the varied and often hazard- 
ous nature of railroad life, full of incident and adventure, 
in which the author has woven admirable advice about 
honesty, manliness, self-culture, good reading, and the 
secrets of success.” — Congregationalist. 

THE YOUNG TRAIN MASTER 

“ It is a book that can be unreservedly commended to 
anyone who loves a good, wholesome, thrilling, informing 
yarn.” — Passaic News. 

THE YOUNG APPRENTICE; Or, Allan West’s 
Chum. 

“ The story is intensely interesting, and one gains an 
intimate knowledge of the methods and works in the 
great car shops not easily gained elsewhere.” — Baltimore 
Sun. 

“ It appeals to every boy of enterprising spirit, and at 
the same time teaches him some valuable lessons in honor, 
pluck, and perseverance.” — Cleveland Plain Dealer. 

“ The lessons that the books teach in development of 
uprightness, honesty and true manly character are sure 
to appeal to the reader.” — The American Boy. 

A — 6 


BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


THE LITTLE COLONEL BOOKS 

(Trade Mark) 

By Annie Fellows Johnston 
Each large 12mo, cloth, illustrated, per volume . $1.50 

THE LITTLE COLONEL STORIES 

(Trade Mark) 

Being three “ Little Colonel ” stories in the Cosy Corner 
Series, “ The Little Colonel,” “ Two Little Knights of 
Kentucky,” and “ The Giant Scissors,” in a single volume. 

THE LITTLE COLONEL’S HOUSE PARTY 

(Trade Mark) 

THE LITTLE COLONEL’S HOLIDAYS 

(Trade Mark) 

THE LITTLE COLONEL’S HERO 

(Trade Mark) 

THE LITTLE COLONEL AT BOARDING- 

(Trade Mark) 

SCHOOL 

THE LITTLE COLONEL IN ARIZONA 

(Trade Mark) 

THE LITTLE COLONEL’S CHRISTMAS 

(Trade Mark) 

VACATION 

THE LITTLE COLONEL, MAID OF HONOR 

(Trade Mark) 

THE LITTLE COLONEL’S KNIGHT COMES 

(Trade Mark) 

RIDING 

MARY WARE: THE LITTLE COLONEL’S 

(Trade Mark) 

CHUM 

MARY WARE IN TEXAS 
MARY WARE’S PROMISED LAND 

These twelve volumes, boxed as a set, $18.00. 

A— 7 


THE PAGE COMPANY’S 


SPECIAL HOLIDAY EDITIONS 

Each small quarto, cloth decorative, per volume . $1.25 

New plates, handsomely illustrated with eight full-page 
drawings in color, and many marginal sketches. 

THE LITTLE COLONEL 

(Trade Mark) 

TWO LITTLE KNIGHTS OF KENTUCKY 
THE GIANT SCISSORS 
BIG BROTHER 

THE JOHNSTON JEWEL SERIES 

Each small 16mo, cloth decorative, with frontispiece 

and decorative text borders, per volume . . $0.50 

IN THE DESERT OF WAITING: The Legend 

of Camelback Mountain. 

THE THREE WEAVERS: A Fairy Tale for 
Fathers and Mothers as Well as for Their 
: Daughters. 

KEEPING TRYST: A Tale of King Arthur’s 
Time. 

THE LEGEND OF THE BLEEDING HEART 
THE RESCUE OF PRINCESS WINSOME: 

A Fairy Play for Old and Young. 

THE JESTERS SWORD 


THE LITTLE COLONEL’S GOOD TIMES 
BOOK 

Uniform in size with the Little Colonel Series . $1.50 

Bound in white kid (morocco) and gold . 3.00 

Cover design and decorations by Peter Verberg. 

“ A mighty attractive volume in which the owner may 
record the good times she has on decorated pages, and 
under the directions as it were of Annie Fellows John- 
ston.” — Buffalo Express. 

A — 8 














